[News Terms] What Is the 'Junyesan' with the Possibility of Execution for the First Time in History?

National Assembly building.
Photo by Yonhap News Agency

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] According to Article 54 of the Constitution, if the National Assembly fails to pass the budget bill within the legal period, the government can execute the budget based on the previous year's budget, which is called a 'jun-budget.'

The government must submit the budget bill to the National Assembly at least 120 days before the start of the fiscal year, and the National Assembly must approve it at least 30 days before the start of the fiscal year. The legal deadline for the National Assembly to process the budget bill was December 2.

If the budget bill is not approved by the time the new fiscal year begins, the government can execute expenses based on the previous year's budget until the budget bill is approved, including ▲maintenance and operation costs of institutions or facilities established under the Constitution or laws ▲expenses to fulfill legally mandated expenditures ▲continuing expenses for projects already approved in the budget. This means the budget is prepared only at a level that maintains minimum state functions.

When a jun-budget is prepared, only mandatory expenditures and minimum costs such as public servant salaries can be executed. Discretionary spending, which amounts to 297 trillion won out of next year's 639 trillion won budget, will be suspended, and welfare program expenditures will also stop, directly affecting vulnerable groups such as the elderly, disabled, and low-income households. Social welfare services such as housekeeping and caregiving helpers, and support activities for the disabled, as well as urgent support for small and medium-sized enterprises, will be halted. Infrastructure and other social overhead capital (SOC) projects may also stop. The government allocated 25.1 trillion won for SOC in next year's budget. If these construction projects stop, daily wage jobs will disappear as well. The government is concerned that if a jun-budget is prepared, 250,000 people could lose their jobs next year.

The jun-budget system was introduced with the 1960 constitutional amendment, but it has never been implemented at the national level until now. The 2013 and 2014 budget bills were passed after the new year, in the early hours of January 1, but since banks were closed for the holiday, expenditure operations were suspended. Once the National Assembly passed the budget bill, the government reviewed and approved the budget at the Cabinet meeting that morning, so there was no problem executing the budget. At the local government level, there have been cases of jun-budget execution: 7 days in Seongnam City in 2013 and 28 days in Gyeonggi Province in 2016.

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