National Assembly's '4th Relief Fund' Supplementary Budget Review in Uncertainty... Ruling and Opposition Tug-of-War Until Plenary Session Day

Jeong Seong-ho, Chairman of the Budget Committee (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kum Bo-ryeong] The National Assembly's Special Committee on Budget and Accounts held an adjustment subcommittee meeting on the 23rd to continue reviewing the supplementary budget (supplementary budget) of 15 trillion won for the payment of the 4th disaster relief fund, but it is facing difficulties. Ultimately, a tug-of-war between the ruling and opposition parties is expected to continue until just before the plenary session on the 24th.

On that day, the ruling and opposition parties conducted a second day of budget reduction reviews for each ministry's projects at the subcommittee. However, they failed to find common ground on major projects and repeatedly postponed the review.

The Democratic Party of Korea insisted on maintaining the original budget for most projects, while the People Power Party demanded cuts to the short-term job budget, failing to narrow the gap in their positions.

In particular, most of the budget reviews under the Ministry of Employment and Labor, which includes large-scale job-related projects such as Youth Job Creation Support (561.1 billion won) and Emergency Employment Stability Support Fund (456.3 billion won), were classified as postponed.

Deputy Minister An Il-hwan of the Ministry of Economy and Finance explained, "(This year's main budget) was prepared based on the expectation of about 100 daily COVID-19 cases last year, but as the number of confirmed cases increased at the end of the year and the beginning of this year, a supplementary budget was prepared."

In response, Rep. Chu Kyung-ho, the People Power Party's secretary of the Budget and Accounts Committee, pointed out, "They kept saying the COVID-19 situation was severe, but now they say they will do a supplementary budget? The government has deceived the National Assembly."

Some health and quarantine budgets, including 2.3484 trillion won for securing an additional 79 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, were approved as originally proposed on that day.

However, for contentious or postponed items, a replacement meeting of the Budget Adjustment Subcommittee is scheduled to be held after consultations between the ruling and opposition secretaries on the morning of the 24th. Rep. Jung Sung-ho of the Democratic Party, chairman of the Budget and Accounts Committee, said, "I ask the two secretaries to make efforts in the future discussion process," and added, "I also request the Ministry of Economy and Finance to actively cooperate by consulting with each ministry and attending the secretary consultation meeting with proposals."

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