"If No Agreement, Even a Solo Proposal Will Be Processed"... Why January 15 Is the Deadline for Next Year's Budget

National Assembly Fails to Pass Budget by Legal Deadline and Regular Session End
Speaker Kim Jin-pyo Sets Budget Deadline for 15th
Timing Speculated Considering Budget Negotiations and Local Budget Preparation
If Budget Not Passed Again, 'Crisis Management Ability' Will Be Questioned

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] The reason Speaker of the National Assembly Kim Jin-pyo set the deadline for the agreement on next year’s budget bill to the 15th is speculated to be a decision considering the negotiation schedule between the ruling and opposition parties and the local budget formulation schedule after the budget bill is processed. Attention is focused on whether the political circle can process the budget bill after three attempts.

On the 10th, Speaker Kim said to reporters, "If the ruling and opposition parties do not reach an agreement by the 15th, we will vote on the government proposal (original bill) currently submitted to the National Assembly or any other amendment if there is one."

Earlier, the National Assembly had announced that it would reach an agreement by the legal deadline for the budget bill on the 2nd but failed. It then declared that it would process the budget bill by the end of the regular session on the 9th at all costs, but this also failed.

Will this third designated deadline really be the final one? Since the two previous deadlines were not met, and Speaker Kim has apologized again, the third deadline is likely to be the practical last line.

A spokesperson from the Speaker’s office said, "Setting the deadline to the 15th means that the ruling and opposition parties should focus on negotiations from the 12th to the 14th," adding, "Isn’t it time to avoid pushing it to next week?" As the Speaker, Kim has taken a firm stance to process the budget bill by the 15th, thereby pressuring the ruling and opposition parties to reach an agreement.

Another reason appears to be a measure to secure the deadline for local governments to start at least minimal budget formulation, given the characteristic of our budget structure where the local government budgets can only be prepared after the central government’s budget is formulated.

According to Article 142 of the current Local Autonomy Act, the budget bill must be approved at least 15 days before the start of the fiscal year for metropolitan local governments and 10 days before for local governments. This year, the budget must be finalized by the 17th for metropolitan local governments and by the 22nd for basic local governments.

Lee Sang-min, senior research fellow at the Nara Salim Research Institute, said, "If the central government’s budget review is delayed, it will cause significant difficulties in the subsequent budget review of local governments."

According to explanations from National Assembly officials, "The government budget must be finalized for the grants to local governments to be confirmed." This means that both the central government and local government budgets could face disruptions.

With the ‘quasi-budget’ that occurs if the budget bill is not agreed upon within this year being openly discussed, the rush to process the budget bill between the ruling and opposition parties is also based on considerations of the economic crisis. Speaker Kim has emphasized the budget bill processing while stressing the ‘economic crisis.’

Right after the failure to process the budget bill within the regular session on the 9th, he stated, "The call to agree on the next year’s budget bill within the regular session was meant to show domestically and internationally that the Republic of Korea has sufficient crisis management capabilities."

He intended to demonstrate to both domestic and international audiences that the political circle can cooperate even in an economic crisis situation.

If the deadline set by Speaker Kim as the third deadline is also not met, it risks becoming an opportunity to reveal the political circle’s lack of crisis management ability during the economic crisis phase.

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