Democracy Excess Tax Revenue TF First Meeting: "One Ministry of Economy and Finance's Creative Accounting... Must Correct Faulty Estimates"

Democratic Party Excess Tax Revenue Fact-Finding TF 1st Meeting
"Ministry of Economy and Finance Engaged in Earnings Manipulation... Consideration of National Audit Authority Activation if Necessary"

Park Hong-geun, Acting Leader and Floor Leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is attending the first meeting of the Task Force for the Investigation of Excess Tax Revenue and Promotion of Fiscal Reform held at the National Assembly on the 10th, participating in the national ceremony. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] The Democratic Party of Korea formed a body to investigate the cause of the tax revenue estimation error revealed during the process of drafting the second supplementary budget on the 10th and held its first meeting.

Park Hong-geun, the floor leader, presided over the first meeting of the "Excess Tax Revenue Truth Investigation and Fiscal Reform Promotion Team" at the National Assembly that morning. Referring to the government's adjustment of revenue estimates reflecting excess tax revenue amounting to 53.3 trillion won in the second supplementary budget, Park criticized, "If household finances are this inaccurate in forecasting, it would be a mess, but it is shocking that the fiscal outlook of South Korea, the world's 10th largest economy, was this erroneous."

Park pointed out, "What is more serious is that during the first supplementary budget in February, (due to the failure to properly predict excess tax revenue) early support and full compensation for losses to small business owners and vulnerable groups were not provided."

He added, "Whether it is due to the incompetence of the fiscal authorities or a political exploitation of this issue, the damage caused by the large-scale tax revenue error has been borne by the people." Park said, "We cannot just let this pass. We must thoroughly investigate the truth and fundamentally improve the problems."

He continued, "The Ministry of Economy and Finance says it will appoint a private expert as the chairperson of the tax revenue estimation committee, but I doubt whether a private chairperson alone can bell the cat," and said, "The promotion team will actively work to identify the causes of the large-scale estimation failure and prepare countermeasures."

The promotion team is led by Democratic Party Budget Committee member Maeng Seong-gyu, with Kim Su-heung as secretary, and Shin Jeong-hoon, Kang Deuk-gu, and Yang Kyung-sook serving as promotion committee members. At the meeting, Yang Kyung-sook emphasized, "Is the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the fiscal authority, engaging in creative accounting? We must definitely uncover the truth, and if necessary, actively consider invoking a parliamentary audit."

Experts who joined the promotion team include Professor Kim Yoo-chan of Hongik University, Professor Kang Byung-gu of Inha University, Senior Research Fellow Jeon Byung-mok of the Korea Institute of Public Finance, Chief Specialist Lee Sang-min of the National Fiscal Research Institute, and Research Fellow Kim Bit-maro of the Korea Institute of Public Finance.

The promotion team plans to hold an expert roundtable with officials from the Ministry of Economy and Finance at the National Assembly on the 21st and adopt an activity report by late July to early August.

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