Hong Ik-pyo: "Ruling Party's Trick Delay... Will Cut Government Budget by 4.6 Trillion Won"

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Hong Ik-pyo, the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, announced that they plan to cut more than 4.6 trillion won from the government’s budget proposal for next year. Criticizing the ruling party for delaying the budget review process through 'tricks,' he stated that the Democratic Party intends to increase funding mainly for small business owners and research and development (R&D) projects.

On the morning of the 28th, at a floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly, Floor Leader Hong said, "(The People Power Party) is delaying the budget review deadline through tricks," adding, "There are two days left for the review deadline, and the legal deadline also ends within this week. We hope they will promptly participate in the budget review."

Hong Ik-pyo, the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is talking with Park Joo-min, the chief deputy floor leader, at the party strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 28th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

He continued, "Our party will drastically cut the contingency fund, which was set at 5 trillion won in the government’s budget proposal," explaining, "We will reduce it to nearly 2 trillion won, which is the pre-COVID-19 level." He also added, "Regarding ODA (Official Development Assistance), considering that the beneficiary countries are not yet prepared, we plan to cut more than 900 billion won." The total reduction amount claimed by the Democratic Party is 4.6 trillion won.

Floor Leader Hong explained, "An increase of 3.3 trillion won is necessary for small business energy vouchers and relief of loan interest burdens," and "We will also increase the budget by 1.5 trillion won to sustain future growth engines and stable research for researchers." Regarding local love gift certificates, the party plans to maintain the 700 billion won increase that the Democratic Party unilaterally approved in the Administrative Safety Committee, and also intends to increase the youth future generation budget by 560 billion won.

He emphasized, "The claim that the Democratic Party cut the youth budget is completely untrue," adding, "We increased the budget for the Naeil Chaeum Deduction, and increased the youth budget more than the government’s proposal for special monthly rent support and youth activity support." He also stated, "We will increase the budget by more than 500 billion won for projects like the Saemangeum project, which had been subject to retaliatory cuts," and added, "Including other budgets, our party’s position is that more than 8 trillion won in budget increases are necessary."

He also repeatedly pressured the government and ruling party. Floor Leader Hong said, "There is a misconception that the government has the right to allocate the budget, but the right to review and consent belongs to the National Assembly," and requested, "We hope they respect the right to review and consent." He added, "As the Budget and Accounts Committee secretary mentioned, the Democratic Party is also preparing its own budget amendment," and concluded, "We will negotiate with the government, but we will not wait too long."

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