Democratic Party: "Urgent Supplementary Budget Needed to Address Blind Spots for Self-Employed and Small Business Owners Over Election Campaigning"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] On the 19th, the Democratic Party of Korea stated at the National Assembly's Special Committee on Budget and Accounts that "passing the supplementary budget bill to support self-employed individuals and small business owners and to address blind spots is more urgent than election campaigning," regarding the government's supplementary budget bill (supplementary budget) being passed unilaterally.

Meng Seong-gyu, the Democratic Party's budget committee spokesperson, said in a press release that day, "For self-employed individuals and small business owners, a single day feels like a year. We will do our best to ensure that their pain does not continue even for a minute or a second until the supplementary budget bill is passed."

Meng stated, "The passage of the supplementary budget bill through the budget committee does not mean it is finalized. The Democratic Party of Korea is well aware that the government's proposed 14 trillion won is insufficient," adding, "Based on the government bill passed by the budget committee today, we will promptly negotiate with the government to protect small business owners and resolve blind spots, and strive for the bill's passage in the National Assembly plenary session as soon as possible."

He continued, "Furthermore, we will work to extend the loan maturity extensions and principal and interest repayment deferrals for small business owners and self-employed individuals, which are set to expire at the end of March, to alleviate their practical difficulties," and said, "Finally, after the presidential election, we will supplement the parts that could not be included in this supplementary budget."

Regarding the surprise unilateral passage of the supplementary budget bill, Meng explained, "We continuously requested the budget committee chairman (Lee Jong-bae of the People Power Party) to convene the meeting, but since the chairman refused or avoided convening or proceeding with the committee for over 10 hours, the Democratic Party passed the supplementary budget bill at 2 a.m. with Meng Seong-gyu acting as the chairman," adding, "According to Article 50 of the National Assembly Act, if the chairman refuses or avoids the meeting, the spokesperson of a negotiation group not including the chairman may act as chairman, and this is a lawful procedure with many precedents."

At around 2 a.m. that day, the Democratic Party held a unilateral full meeting of the budget committee and passed the government's supplementary budget bill worth 14 trillion won, which includes providing 3 million won in quarantine support funds to 3.2 million self-employed individuals and small business owners.

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