Kim Jong-in "The ruling party, which urged supplementary budget before the election... finds it hard to accept refusal of flood damage supplementary budget"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hye-min] Kim Jong-in, Emergency Committee Chairman of the United Future Party, criticized the government and ruling party on the 13th, saying, "It is difficult to understand the situation where those who believed that the supplementary budget (추경) was absolutely necessary before the election are now refusing the supplementary budget for people who lost their livelihoods due to the flood damage."

Chairman Kim held an emergency committee meeting at the National Assembly that morning and said, "I demand the preparation of a supplementary budget to quickly restore flood damage."

He referred to the time when 1 million won per household was paid to all citizens during the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, saying, "(The United Future Party) suggested reallocating 10% of this year's budget to use it first and then prepare a supplementary budget if necessary, but the ruling party responded negatively at that time," and pointed out, "It is difficult to understand the refusal of the supplementary budget for people who lost their livelihoods due to the flood damage."

Chairman Kim emphasized, "I believe a supplementary budget is absolutely necessary to quickly restore the current situation," and added, "The government should face the current situation directly and, anticipating the impact of the second wave of COVID-19 infections, use the budget more appropriately; preparing a supplementary budget is the proper order."

Regarding the ruling party's talk about raising property taxes compared to other countries, he said, "Tax systems are products of each country's historical development," and added, "It is not proper to operate the tax system by vaguely judging that a specific tax in our country is low compared to other countries."

Chairman Kim continued, "Our country has the fewest people paying income tax; should we raise it just because the number of taxpayers is small?" and added, "Please refrain from unreasonable arguments such as 'we should do this because it is less than other countries' as much as possible."

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