Ando Geol "68.7% of 1st Supplementary Budget Cash Support Projects, Including Beotimmok Fund Plus, Completed"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] Ando-geol, the 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, announced on the 20th that 68.7% of the cash support projects related to the first supplementary budget (supplementary budget) finalized at the end of March this year have been paid.

On the afternoon of the same day, Vice Minister Ahn chaired the 5th Fiscal Management Inspection Meeting at the Government Seoul Office and explained, "As of the 19th, cash support projects such as the Support Fund Plus have been paid to 3.57 million people with 5 trillion won." He said, "We provided 4.6 trillion won (68.8%) in Support Fund Plus to 2.83 million small business owners whose sales decreased due to the third wave of COVID-19, and paid 400 billion won including support funds to 671,000 special types and freelancers, 63,000 taxi drivers, and 10,000 bus drivers." He added, "Since the support fund for visiting care workers will also start to be paid from the end of May, we will expedite execution to complete payment to more than 80% of the eligible recipients by the end of May through prompt administrative procedures and handling of objections."

He also assessed that the execution performance of the projects subject to this year's main budget management is favorable. He said, "As of the end of April, central finances executed 156 trillion won (45.4%) out of 343.7 trillion won, local finances and local education finances executed 94.4 trillion won (38.8%) out of 243 trillion won and 9.7 trillion won (50.7%) out of 19.1 trillion won respectively," and added, "This is a favorable performance at 65-80% of the first half early execution target set at the highest level ever."

In particular, he explained, "In the fiscal support job sector, 7.9 trillion won (57.8%) out of the 13.6 trillion won budget under management was executed by April, showing a 10 percentage point faster execution rate compared to the same month last year," and "Central, local, and local education finances executed 25.2 trillion won (23.1%) in construction investment and acquisition of tangible and intangible assets by May 14." He emphasized, "This speed is 2.4 percentage points faster than the recent two-year average (20.7%), reflecting the result of accelerating execution speed to reinforce economic vitality."

As key points for fiscal execution in the remaining first half of the year, he cited ▲ execution of budget for job creation support ▲ expansion of Korean New Deal investment for transition to a leading economy ▲ preparation to minimize carryover and non-utilization. He explained, "We are focusing on executing related budgets to create 1.04 million direct jobs for vulnerable employment groups and are faithfully playing the role of a support pillar for employment maintenance in the public sector by steadily executing budgets related to employment safety nets such as job-seeking benefits," and added, "We will make special efforts to recover pre-crisis employment levels by focusing on budget execution for creating quality jobs in the private sector such as strengthening the competitiveness of ventures, startups, and self-employed businesses."

Furthermore, he stressed, "If the non-utilization rate of total expenditure can be reduced by 1 percentage point, it would mean that about 5.6 trillion won worth of finances would be injected, which would have the same effect as one supplementary budget," and "Looking at the central finance execution status until April, 45.4% of the budget under management was executed, the highest execution rate in the past 10 years, and we will continue the recent rapid fiscal execution trend."

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