No Progress in Ruling and Opposition Negotiations by Today's Deadline
Negotiations Expected to Continue Until Tonight if Delayed
Speaker's Decision on Convening Plenary Session on 15th Is Crucial
[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] Although the opposition party set the 14th as the deadline for budget agreement, there is still no progress in the negotiations. The ruling and opposition parties remain at an impasse over issues such as corporate tax cuts, drawing parallel lines without finding common ground. If no agreement is reached by the evening, the opposition plans to submit a unilateral amendment before tomorrow's (15th) plenary session.
On the morning of the same day, Floor Leader Park Hong-geun held a press conference at the National Assembly and said, "We hope the government and ruling party will present the 'final negotiation proposal' by today," adding, "If they ultimately refuse to negotiate in the National Assembly by following President Yoon's will over public sentiment, the Democratic Party will submit its own amendment tomorrow to 'block ultra-rich tax cuts and expand tax cuts for the people.'" He emphasized, "Tomorrow is the absolute deadline for processing, so the deadline is clearly today."
Kim Seong-hwan, the Policy Committee Chair of the Democratic Party of Korea, also expressed a tough stance in a phone interview with Asia Economy, saying, "There is no change in the position to submit a unilateral amendment tomorrow if negotiations fail by today," and "We will continue negotiations until today."
However, the ruling and opposition parties are still running parallel on the major issue of corporate tax, making negotiations difficult. Previously, the People Power Party urged acceptance of the Speaker Kim Jin-pyo's mediation proposal, which included a '3% corporate tax cut and a 2-year grace period,' but the Democratic Party has not backed down. The day before, the floor leaders of both parties held a closed-door meeting chaired by the Speaker but failed to narrow their differences. On the same day, Floor Leader Park maintained his position, saying, "We are willing to cooperate with President Yoon Seok-yeol's pledge to reduce corporate tax by lowering the tax rate to 10% for about 54,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-sized companies in the 200 million to 500 million KRW taxable income bracket, but it is incomprehensible that they are only obsessed with cutting taxes for large corporations that are making significant profits without paying attention to this."
Regarding this, Sung Il-jong, Policy Committee Chair of the People Power Party, said on KBS Radio's 'Choi Kyung-young's Strong Current Affairs' that the corporate tax cut negotiations "are stuck because they are prisoners of the outdated ideology of ultra-rich tax cuts," adding, "Although tax revenue may decrease in the short term, it is a system worth trying in the long run. We hope the Democratic Party will review it positively." On the other hand, Policy Committee Chair Kim said that the ruling party's emphasis on the Speaker's mediation proposal is "unacceptable to the Democratic Party," and "there is no progress in negotiations."
The People Power Party is also firmly opposing the Democratic Party's reduction plan, prepared by party leader Lee Jae-myung and other party leaders, based on the theme of 'tax cuts for ordinary people.' The core of this reduction plan is to pursue partial reductions in corporate tax, comprehensive income tax, and tax special cases, and to cut the budget for the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's government organization operations. However, the day before, Floor Leader Joo Ho-young of the People Power Party criticized at the party's floor strategy meeting, saying, "They raised taxes with a tax bomb during their own administration and call a slight reduction 'tax cuts for ordinary people,'" and "Stop obstructing the administration by holding the budget hostage immediately, and cooperate so that the budget for ordinary people and struggling businesses can be executed immediately," effectively signaling a refusal to negotiate.
The Democratic Party has already prepared a unilateral amendment focused on reductions. The day before, Floor Leader Park delivered the contents of the amendment to Speaker Kim and discussed it. After the meeting of floor leaders chaired by the Speaker, he said, "As already announced, we have been accelerating the work to create a reduction-focused amendment, and it is now almost complete." It is reported that the Democratic Party designed the amendment in advance since September in anticipation that the government and ruling party would push for a supplementary budget. A senior party official explained, "Since the ruling party mentioned a supplementary budget as early as September, the party has been preparing the amendment," adding, "We have already prepared an amendment of about 300 pages, and there are no parts that violate budget regulations, so it will be difficult for the government and ruling party to block it."
Therefore, if negotiations are not completed by the evening at the latest, the Democratic Party plans to submit a unilateral amendment before the plenary session tomorrow. Since Speaker Kim stated, "The National Assembly plenary session will be held on the afternoon of the 15th, and the budget bill submitted then, whether it is the government’s or the Democratic Party’s, must be processed," there is a high possibility that the amendment will be passed along with the convening of the plenary session on that day.
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