Ruling and Opposition's Budget Review: "Processing Within Deadline" vs "Government Out of Sync"

Budget Increase and Decrease Scale Discussion Conflict

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] The Democratic Party of Korea has pledged to pass next year's budget bill by the legal deadline of December 2, but the People Power Party criticized this, saying it is nonsensical to push forward without coordination between the party and government from the budget cut stage, signaling expected difficulties.

On the 30th, the National Assembly's Budget and Accounts Committee will discuss the scale of increases and decreases in next year's budget through consultations between ruling and opposition party secretaries. Since budget review activities end at midnight that day, the Democratic Party plans to reach a negotiation agreement within today to meet the deadline. Yoon Ho-jung, the floor leader of the Democratic Party, said at a morning meeting, "Considering the hardships of people's livelihoods due to COVID-19, I hope we do not play with numbers and process the budget bill according to the legal deadline."

Yoon Ho-jung, the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is wearing his mask properly while speaking during the floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 30th. Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@

The key items in the increase or decrease of next year's budget include ‘Lee Jae-myung’s three major budgets,’ excluding the nationwide disaster relief fund, such as ‘small business loss compensation’ and ‘local currency.’ The Democratic Party intends to increase the issuance scale of local currency beyond this year's 21 trillion won. Along with this, the budget for small business loss compensation is also expected to be expanded. The day before, Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, agreed with Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate, on the 50 trillion won scale support for small business loss compensation and counter-proposed to reflect it immediately in next year's budget.

However, the People Power Party pointed out that the Democratic Party is just pushing to process the budget within the deadline while being out of sync with the government on the budget cut amount.

Kim Ki-hyun, the floor leader, said on YTN radio in the morning, "The Democratic Party and the government wasted all the time going back and forth without reaching a conclusion," and questioned, "Then how can they unconditionally process it by December 2?" Regarding the tentative agreement on a budget cut scale of 2.4 trillion won, he denied it, saying, "The budget cut amount we insisted on is 8 to 9 trillion won."

Kim Ki-hyun, floor leader of the People Power Party, is delivering opening remarks at the floor strategy meeting held at the National Assembly on the 30th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

However, he viewed Lee’s acceptance of the 50 trillion won as "a very welcome development." But he criticized it for lacking a plan to secure funding, questioning its "sincerity."

At the morning meeting, Floor Leader Kim said, "The ultra-super budget does not include direct budget support for small businesses," and criticized, "They are focusing all their efforts only on the budget that Lee Jae-myung ordered, such as local currency issuance." He emphasized that unnecessary new projects and under-executed projects' budgets should be cut and resources secured through expenditure restructuring. Meanwhile, if the Budget and Accounts Committee fails to approve next year's budget bill on that day, according to the National Assembly Act, next year's budget bill will be automatically submitted to the plenary session as the government's proposal.