KRW 65.66 Billion Next Year Budget Passed by National Assembly... KRW 300 Billion Decrease Compared to Government Proposal

On the 21st, processed in the National Assembly plenary session...
Exceeding the legal deadline by 19 days

The next year's budget bill amounting to 656.6 trillion won passed the National Assembly on the 21st. It was about 300 billion won less than the government's original proposal submitted to the National Assembly (656.9 trillion won).

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the same day, the ruling and opposition parties approved the next year's budget bill in the plenary session with 237 votes in favor, 9 against, and 13 abstentions out of 259 members present. During the deliberation process, the parties increased the budget by about 3.9 trillion won and cut it by 4.2 trillion won, finalizing the next year's budget with total expenditures 2.8% higher than this year's main budget.

In the budget review process, the ruling and opposition parties increased the research and development (R&D) budget by a net 621.7 billion won, focusing on expanding research infrastructure such as resolving employment instability and supporting next-generation and fundamental technology research.

The Saemangeum social overhead capital budget and local currency budget, strongly promoted by the Democratic Party, were each increased by 300 billion won. For the Saemangeum project, additional funds were allocated for highways (113.3 billion won), new ports (119 billion won), and new airports (26.1 billion won).

Support projects for the livelihood economy and vulnerable groups were also increased. These include partial reduction of loan interest for vulnerable borrowers to ease small business owners' interest burdens (300 billion won), temporary support for part of the electricity bill increase for small business owners (252 billion won), and a one-year extension of the special temporary support for youth monthly rent (69 billion won).

The next year's budget bill was passed 19 days after the legal deadline (December 2). Although it was three days faster than last year's record late passage on December 24, which was the longest delay since the introduction of the National Assembly's advanced law in 2014, it avoided the stigma of being the "longest delayed" passage.

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