野 Criticizes "Abandonment of Saemangeum"... Will This Year's Budget Bill Also Miss the Legal Deadline?

Democratic Party "Will Correct Retaliatory Budget Cuts"
Justice Party "Greenhouse Gas Reduction Budget Stagnates"

Criticism from the opposition parties is pouring in over next year's budget of 656 trillion won, which has been tightened with a historically low growth rate of 2.8%. Along with cuts to the Saemangeum social overhead capital (SOC) budget, Democratic Party lawmakers from Jeollabuk-do have raised their voices in unison. The Justice Party also criticized the budget for neglecting climate crisis response and research and development. Due to the fierce opposition from the opposition parties, there is a growing possibility that this budget bill will pass after the legal deadline (December 2).

On the 30th, Democratic Party lawmakers from Jeonbuk, including Kim Seong-ju, held a press conference at the National Assembly, stating that this budget bill is a "Saemangeum erasure budget that shifts the responsibility for the Jamboree fiasco to Saemangeum," and "we solemnly condemn the obstinate and petty Yoon Seok-yeol government and the People Power Party with the will of 1.8 million Jeollabuk-do residents."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the Democratic Party, the budget requests submitted by government ministries such as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to the Ministry of Economy and Finance at the end of May included a total of 738.9 billion won for 24 Saemangeum-related projects. However, the government's budget proposal for next year included only 186.1 billion won, about 25% of that amount. Seventy-five percent of the budget request was cut during the Ministry of Economy and Finance's review process.

They particularly pointed out the problem of SOC budget cuts. The lawmakers said, "The budget for 10 Saemangeum SOC projects, which are already reflected in the Saemangeum Master Plan (MP) and underway, was submitted to the Ministry of Economy and Finance by various government ministries with 662.6 billion won, but the final budget reflected in next year's government budget proposal is only 147.9 billion won (22.3%)," adding, "a whopping 77.7% has been cut."

They added, "This large-scale budget cut cannot be explained unless it is a retaliatory budget allocation by the Yoon Seok-yeol government and the People Power Party," and "we will definitely correct the retaliatory budget cuts by the Yoon Seok-yeol government during the National Assembly's review process of the upcoming next year's government budget proposal."

On the same day, the Justice Party also held a press conference and poured criticism on next year's budget proposal. The Justice Party called this year's budget an "irresponsible budget that shifts the burden of household expenditures," and said, "The 2024 government budget proposal of 657 trillion won with the lowest growth rate in 20 years symbolizes the Yoon Seok-yeol government's disastrous fiscal management." They argued that it is wrong for the government to choose austerity instead of fiscal stimulus amid an economic downturn.

They pointed out that the research and development (R&D) budget was cut by 5 trillion won during the austerity process, the education budget was reduced by 7 trillion won, and climate response was also pushed aside.

The Justice Party said, "'Climate crisis response' was not even included in the '20 major core tasks.' Only budgets for dam construction and river management increased, while budgets related to greenhouse gas reduction remained stagnant," adding, "We will carefully scrutinize, question, point out, debate, and fight over the problems of the Yoon Seok-yeol government's budget proposal during the regular National Assembly session and budget review phase."

With the opposition parties unanimously criticizing the government's 'austerity' budget proposal, the review of the 2024 budget is expected to face difficulties. This government budget proposal will be submitted to the National Assembly on the 1st of next month and finalized after the National Assembly's review.

The legal deadline is December 2, but if the gap between the ruling and opposition parties over the budget proposal is not narrowed, it is highly likely that the deadline will be missed again, following the 2023 budget. In particular, the Democratic Party is demanding the preparation of a supplementary budget for reasons such as livelihood issues, which could become another flashpoint.

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