The National Assembly Approaches Approval of the 2nd Supplementary Budget... 1 Trillion Won in Expenditure Adjustments Focused on Land, Defense, and Industry Committees

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun, who attended the National Assembly Budget and Accounts Committee plenary session on the 28th to review the second supplementary budget bill for the emergency disaster relief fund payment, is giving a proposal explanation. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Wondara] On the 29th, the National Assembly held a plenary session and passed the second supplementary budget bill (supplementary budget) worth 14.3 trillion won to provide emergency disaster relief funds to all citizens. On the morning of the 29th, the budget and accounts committee floor leaders of the ruling and opposition parties held a meeting to pass the second supplementary budget and are conducting final negotiations. The United Future Party had stated that it would decide whether to agree to issue 3.6 trillion won in government bonds on the condition of adjusting expenditures by 1 trillion won.

According to each standing committee on the morning of the day, the approximately 1 trillion won expenditure adjustment is expected to be centered on the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, which has a large social overhead capital (SOC) budget. The Land Committee decided to cut expenditures by 564.7 billion won. A Land Committee official explained, "The cuts were mainly focused on railway projects," adding, "This is the second time since 1998, when 1.4 trillion won was cut, that the SOC budget has been reduced to secure funds for other sectors."

In addition, the Defense Committee, Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Venture Business Committee, and Education Committee also reduced their expenditure budgets. Officials from the Budget and Accounts Committee and Defense Committee explained, "We cut about 200 billion won from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration budget." The Industry Committee decided to cut 52.9 billion won. An official from the Industry Committee said, "We cut 2.9 billion won in personnel expenses and 50 billion won from the energy-saving facility installation fund." The Education Committee decided to postpone the seismic design project for national and public universities, worth about 20 billion won, to be pursued later.

If the second supplementary budget bill, including the expenditure reduction plans from each standing committee, passes in today's floor leader consultation replacing the budget subcommittee, the emergency disaster relief funds for all citizens are expected to be distributed starting from the 14th of next month after the plenary session tonight. However, since the main opposition party, the United Future Party, is demanding a reduction in the scale of government bond issuance citing fiscal soundness, there is still a possibility of some delay in the budget and accounts committee review. An official from the Budget and Accounts Committee said, "So far, the review schedule may be delayed, but the plenary session resolution is expected to proceed."

Meanwhile, during the comprehensive policy questioning of the Budget and Accounts Committee held at the National Assembly the previous day, tensions arose over the third supplementary budget. It is expected that the size of the third supplementary budget, which will be allocated for employment shock measures, financial measures, and economic support, will approach 30 trillion won.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said, "If the third supplementary budget is prepared, we plan to make efforts to secure funds by restructuring expenditures much more intensively and extensively than now." When Kim Jae-won, chairman of the Budget and Accounts Committee and a member of the United Future Party, asked, "Isn't the entire third supplementary budget funded by government bond issuance?" he replied, "I don't think that should be the case." On the other hand, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Hong Nam-ki said, "We are trying to secure as much room as possible to further restructure expenditures, but most of the increase in scale is inevitably covered by deficit government bonds." This is interpreted as a statement that there is not much room left for additional expenditure adjustments.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.