Opposition: "Block Ultra-Wealthy Tax Cuts, Cut Power Agency Budgets to Secure 5 Trillion Won... Increase Safety and Pension Livelihood Budgets"

5 Trillion Won Scale Increase in 10 Major Livelihood Projects
1.6 Trillion Won for Pensions, 699.3 Billion Won Increase in Housing Supply
Active Reduction of Excessive Presidential Office Relocation Costs

[Asia Economy Reporters Chae-eun Koo and Jun-yi Park] The Democratic Party of Korea announced that it will significantly cut the budgets for power institutions and reduce the corporate tax cuts in the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's first budget proposal, reallocating these funds to public safety, basic pensions, and rice price stabilization.

On the 4th, the Democratic Party held a '2023 Budget Proposal Press Briefing' and stated, "We will oppose the ultra-rich tax cuts and use the funds saved from drastically reducing the budgets of power institutions and poorly designed or unnecessary expenditures to increase the budget for 10 major livelihood projects worth about 5 trillion won that the public needs and can feel."

Kim Byung-wook, senior deputy chairman of the Democratic Party's Policy Committee, said, "The total expenditure of 639 trillion won is a reduction of 4.05 trillion won compared to the previous year's final budget, marking the first decrease in 13 years," and criticized, "With concerns over an economic downturn in 2023 due to high interest rates, high inflation, and high exchange rates, the austerity budget will further deepen economic instability."

He added, "Although the government claims that next year's budget proposal follows a sound fiscal policy, in reality, the tax revenue effect has decreased by 640 billion won due to ultra-rich tax cuts, damaging the revenue base and accelerating fiscal deterioration. The national tax revenue for next year is projected at 400.5 trillion won, which is only 3.4 trillion won more than this year's government forecast of 397.1 trillion won," he pointed out.

Kim said, "The Democratic Party opposes the ultra-rich tax cuts and plans to secure funds by drastically cutting budgets for power institutions and problematic projects such as poorly designed or unnecessary expenditures. We intend to use the secured funds to increase budgets that the public can feel, including livelihood budgets, economic and climate response budgets, and public safety."

The 10 major livelihood projects to be increased total about 5 trillion won. These include ▲Public safety projects (21.2 billion won) ▲Local love gift certificates (705 billion won) ▲Senior job programs (95.7 billion won) ▲Basic pension payments (1.6 trillion won) ▲Rental housing supply (699.3 billion won) ▲Youth support (186.2 billion won) ▲Rice price stabilization (195.9 billion won) ▲High-interest support (1.2797 trillion won) ▲Disability support (369.6 billion won) ▲Renewable energy support (328.1 billion won).

On the other hand, the budgets for power institutions will be drastically cut. In particular, budget reviews will focus on significantly reducing the budgets for the Presidential Secretariat and the National Security Office. The Democratic Party pointed out, "While ministries are tightening their belts through expenditure restructuring, the Presidential Secretariat and National Security Office, which should lead fiscal savings, increased their official business expenses by 70 million won," and "The congratulatory and condolence expenses for staff birthdays, frozen at 60 million won for years, were increased by 50 million won to 110 million won."

Examples of budget cuts mentioned include the construction budget for the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office annex building, administrative safety department expense budgets, enforcement ordinance governance budgets, Ministry of SMEs and Startups' startup-centered university project budgets, Financial Services Commission's youth leap account project budgets, and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's youth housing-related budgets. Based on the 5 to 6 trillion won in reduced budgets, the Democratic Party plans to actively push for increased budgets in 10 major projects that the public needs and that support livelihoods, such as local love gift certificates, senior jobs and expanded heating and cooling costs for senior centers, and safety responsibility budgets.

Kim said, "The budgets the Democratic Party requested to increase are for safety, local currency, seniors, jobs, basic pensions, low-income support, rental housing, youth, rice price stabilization, and disability support. Can the Yoon Seok-yeol government oppose these? I don't think so."

He added, "We requested budget increases on behalf of the people for what they want and need. Although budget formulation is the government's authority, the Democratic Party's requests representing the people's voices cannot be ignored. I hope the budget review process will find a compromise point."

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