Government: "First Supplementary Budget Execution Rate at 80.4%... Special Inspection in the Next Two Weeks"

6th Fiscal Management Review Meeting

Ando-geol, the 2nd Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance, is presiding over the Fiscal Management Inspection Meeting held at the Government Seoul Office on the 17th. 2021.6.17 [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Son Seon-hee] As of the 10th, the execution rate of the first supplementary budget (supplementary budget) prepared last March was 80.4%. On the 16th, the government announced that it would actively manage finances by swiftly executing the remaining supplementary budget while focusing on the formulation of the second supplementary budget plan centered on 'supporting small business owners' damage, employment, and livelihood stabilization.'

On the afternoon of the same day, Ando-geol, Vice Minister of Strategy and Finance, presided over the '6th Fiscal Management Inspection Meeting' at the Government Seoul Office and checked the execution performance and results of the first supplementary budget.

Of the total 14.9 trillion won in the first supplementary budget, the budget subject to management is 11.3 trillion won. Of this, a total of 9.1 trillion won has been executed so far. In the case of the cash support project targeting small business owners and special employment workers (totaling 7.3 trillion won), 5.2 trillion won (70.6%) was paid to 3.71 million people. Other projects such as employment measures and quarantine support executed 2.5 trillion won (63.6%) out of a total of 4 trillion won.

Vice Minister Ahn said, "Fiscal management in the second half of this year will focus on actively supporting our economy to achieve a full economic recovery to pre-crisis levels, and preemptively responding to risk factors such as the recovery gap between classes and sectors caused during the COVID-19 crisis, and employment instability among vulnerable groups including youth and women who have left the workforce."

He added, "In addition, to further strengthen the recovery trend of our economy, we have designated the remaining two weeks of the first half of the year as a special execution management inspection period and plan to do our best to achieve the early execution goals for the first half." The execution targets for the first half are 63% for central finance, 60% for local finance, and 63.5% for local education finance.

Meanwhile, amid delays in various public construction projects due to delays in rebar delivery, the government has announced related measures. Vice Minister Ahn said, "We will strengthen management to ensure that rebar is preferentially supplied to project sites where adherence to construction periods is urgent, such as disaster recovery, safety facility construction, and school construction," and added, "Since the contract price for government-purchased rebar has been adjusted to a realistic level (standard price from 95% to about 100%), we will secure the necessary purchase volume at appropriate order prices." He also requested, "In urgent cases, please consider emergency measures to switch the purchasing method from government supply (官給) to private supply (私給)."