Budget Subcommittee Approves 3rd Supplementary Budget... 3.51 Trillion Won with 200 Billion Won Cut

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] The National Assembly's Special Committee on Budget and Accounts' Budget Adjustment Subcommittee finalized the size of the 3rd supplementary budget (supplementary budget) to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic at 35.1 trillion won, reduced by 200 billion won from the government's proposal, and forwarded it to the plenary session.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The subcommittee increased the budget by a total of 1.3067 trillion won based on the government proposal but cut 1.511 trillion won, resulting in a net reduction of 204.2 billion won.

Park Hong-geun, the ruling party's secretary of the Budget Committee, said to reporters after the meeting, "Excluding the revenue adjustment of 11.4 trillion won in this 3rd supplementary budget, the government's expenditure proposal was 23.0928 trillion won," adding, "Through our review in the National Assembly, we increased the budget by 1.3067 trillion won, a 5.5% increase, and cut 1.511 trillion won, a 6.3% reduction."

Park emphasized, "The scale of the cuts is the largest among all supplementary budgets in history in terms of the amount of reduced projects."

The sector with the largest net increase was health, welfare, and employment, with a net increase of 436.7 billion won. On the other hand, the industry, small and medium enterprises, and energy sectors saw the largest net decrease, with 353.5 billion won cut.

Park explained, "Due to the delay in processing the supplementary budget, 300 billion won was cut from the Hope Work Job Project," adding, "1.5 trillion won was cut from the budget for high-efficiency home appliance purchase rebates, and 1 trillion won was cut from contributions to the Trade Insurance Fund."

He continued, "799 billion won was increased to strengthen COVID-19 quarantine measures, and 28 billion won was added to the public building Green New Deal project."

The emergency support project for non-face-to-face university education, aimed at supporting universities whose financial situation has worsened due to COVID-19, was also increased by 100 billion won. He stated, "We will comprehensively consider each university's payment performance of special scholarships, the degree of universities' actual self-help efforts, and financial conditions," adding, "We created a double safeguard to ensure that the funds are used only for improving the quality of education, such as online classes, quarantine, transportation environment improvement, and equipment."

This subcommittee was held over three days starting from the 1st, with only members of the Democratic Party participating.