People Power Party "Cut Communication Expense Budget by 520 Billion Won, Increased 'Idolbom' by 200 Billion Won"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] The People Power Party announced that in reviewing the 4th supplementary budget, they replaced the '20,000 KRW nationwide communication fee support' with selective support and increased the budget for expanded childcare support by 200 billion KRW.

The People Power Party's Budget and Accounts Committee stated on the 22nd in the '4th supplementary budget review results' that "we cut 520.6 billion KRW from the '20,000 KRW communication fee support,' which 58% of the public opposed and which lacked effectiveness."

Initially, the ruling party and government allocated about 930 billion KRW of the 4th supplementary budget to provide 20,000 KRW communication fee support to all citizens, but the People Power Party opposed this, leading both parties to finally agree on selective support.

Instead of the budget for communication fees, they increased the budget by about 590 billion KRW for childcare support, at-risk children support, and medical staff support. The People Power Party said, "They increased the budget by 207.4 billion KRW to expand the childcare project, which originally supported 200,000 KRW up to elementary school, to cover up to middle school and provide 150,000 KRW per person," adding, "They increased the budget for free flu vaccines, which was not included in the original government plan, by 31.5 billion KRW to expand free vaccination targets to include people with disabilities and medical aid recipients."

Additionally, to support individual taxi drivers and corporate taxi workers, who raised issues regarding fare formation, they provided 1 million KRW per person and increased the budget by 81 billion KRW so that about 90,000 people could receive additional benefits. The encouragement allowance for 34,000 medical staff was also increased from 14,000 KRW to 40,000 KRW. To strengthen protection for at-risk children, the budget was increased by 4.7 billion KRW, and 183.9 billion KRW was added for COVID-19 vaccines.

The People Power Party explained, "The ruling party and government abused their numerical superiority and the government's agreement to increase the budget to refuse the complete cut of the communication fee support until the end," adding, "Although there were limitations as a minority opposition party, we made our best efforts to convert the reduced funds into meaningful support for groups facing fare formation issues and citizens suffering from COVID-19."

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