Presidential Office on Budget Agreement: "Livelihood Budget Diminished... Economic Concerns Regrettable"

Presidential Office Issues Official Statement One Day After Ruling and Opposition Announcements... "Yoon Seok-yeol Government Will Quietly Do Its Best"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Bae Kyunghwan] The Presidential Office on the 23rd expressed its position on the ruling and opposition parties' agreement on next year's budget, stating, "We intended to inject finances to revitalize the economy, but the livelihood budget was diminished due to being overpowered." The official stance was released one day after the announcement of the budget agreement, expressing concern that "it is uncertain whether the economic crisis can be overcome as is," but also stating, "The Yoon Seok-yeol administration will quietly do its best."

Lee Jae-myung, Deputy Spokesperson of the Presidential Office, held a briefing at the Yongsan Presidential Office building in the afternoon and mentioned, "Although we had no choice but to agree amid a difficult national economy and concerns about external credibility, there are regrets."

The ruling and opposition parties agreed to reduce 4.6 trillion won from the 639 trillion won budget proposal submitted by the government for next year and to increase it by about 3.5 to 4 trillion won. The budget for the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's Police Bureau and the Ministry of Justice's Personnel Information Management Unit, which were key issues, was cut in half, and the highest corporate tax rate was agreed to be lowered by 1%.

A Presidential Office official stated, "The budget reflects the philosophy and policy direction of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration," adding, "We prepared the budget with responsibility and requested parliamentary review, but much of that has been considerably diminished." In particular, the official added, "It is regrettable that a significant portion of the budget was not the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's budget but was utilized by the opposition party, which holds numerical superiority."

Regarding corporate tax and capital gains tax on stocks, it was pointed out that the goals initially pursued in the government proposal were not met, stating, "All of this was thwarted by ideological arguments labeling it as tax cuts for the wealthy, and ultimately, it may be passed on to powerless ordinary citizens and the vulnerable. That is the regrettable part." The official continued, "We must devote all our efforts with special and extraordinary determination to revitalize the economy next year, but we believe the current budget and related tax law amendments are quite insufficient."

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