Final Struggles in Ruling and Opposition Parties Over Supplementary Budget Bill... Disagreement on Amount of Quarantine Support Fund

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 13th, the ruling and opposition parties, along with the government, continued last-minute struggles over the increase of the supplementary budget bill (추경안). The ruling party aims to pass the supplementary budget before the official start of the next presidential election campaign on the 15th, but progress has stalled due to disagreements over the scale of the quarantine support funds for small business owners. The government insists on the existing plan of 3 million won per person, the ruling party proposed 5 million won, and the opposition party argues that up to 10 million won should be paid as per the previous agreement.

Members of the ruling and opposition parties on the National Assembly Budget and Accounts Special Committee met at the National Assembly main building in the afternoon to negotiate an increase in the supplementary budget but failed to produce results.

Yoon Ho-jung, the floor leader of the Democratic Party, said after the '3+3' meeting (floor leaders, senior deputy floor leaders, and budget committee members) between the ruling and opposition parties, "We have not reached an agreement on the supplementary budget between the ruling and opposition parties." He added, "Both sides are dissatisfied with the amount of increase that the government can agree to, so it is unlikely to be processed tomorrow."

He raised the opposition party's responsibility, saying, "The opposition party is refusing to accept the proposal to process the supplementary budget at a level that the ruling and opposition parties and the government can agree on first, and then support the lacking parts through a second supplementary budget after the presidential election." Yoon also expressed hope that the supplementary budget would be processed together when the plenary session is held at 3 p.m. on the 14th to pass the election law amendment bill.

Kim Gi-hyeon, the floor leader of the People Power Party, also pointed out, "The government brought a supplementary budget plan of about 16 trillion won," and criticized, "There is no preparation at all for those pushed to the brink of survival." He emphasized, "They are trying to patch things up by giving small business owners a paltry 1 million won in damage support funds, but they consistently claim that it should be 10 million won," and added, "We will continue to demand that the government recompile the budget."

Regarding the plenary session processing on the 14th, Floor Leader Kim reiterated, "The problem is not the processing but the content." He said, "It is the responsibility of the government and the ruling party to secure the supplementary budget scale of 46 trillion won that we are demanding and to process it naturally."

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