South Korea: Democratic Party Set to Present Streamlined 2025 Budget Bill in National Assembly
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Seoul, Dec 1 (NationPress) The Democratic Party (DP), the principal opposition party in South Korea, declared on Sunday its intention to introduce a streamlined budget bill for the next fiscal year in a plenary session of the National Assembly this week. This decision comes after the party successfully advanced the proposal through a parliamentary committee, despite a boycott from the ruling party.
DP floor leader Park Chan-dae revealed the strategy just two days after his party, which maintains a parliamentary majority, pushed the 2025 budget bill through the special committee on budget and accounts, disregarding objections from the ruling People Power Party, as reported by Yonhap news agency.
The budget proposal estimates next year's budget at 677.4 trillion won (approximately $485.3 billion), which is a reduction of 4.1 trillion won from the original plan set forth by the government.
"The DP has made the difficult choice to present the reduced budget bill in a plenary meeting on Monday, as it is the legal deadline for passing the bill," Park stated during a press briefing.
The floor leader characterized this action as an extraordinary measure aimed at normalizing government operations, underscoring the party's commitment to preventing tax cuts for the wealthy and reducing budgets for influential state agencies.
This budget reduction impacts the entirety of the funds allocated for special activity expenses of the presidential office's secretariat, national security office, prosecution, state audit agency, and the police.
Additionally, it halves the government’s 4.8 trillion-won reserve fund to 2.4 trillion won.
The ruling party has criticized this action as a means of neutralizing the operational capacities of the prosecution, police, and state audit agency by slashing their budgets, claiming that the vote is intended to protect DP leader Lee Jae-myung, who is currently facing multiple trials.
Park acknowledged the potential for amendments to the budget bill, stating, "There is ample opportunity for further discussions if the government and ruling party adopt a constructive approach."
DP Chair Lee supported this viewpoint, mentioning, "The government can submit a revised bill if needed," during a meeting with North Gyeongsang Province Governor Lee Cheol-woo, who has requested an increase in funding for the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to be held in Gyeongju next year.
The statutory deadline for the approval of the national budget is December 2; however, the National Assembly has only managed to meet this deadline twice in the last two decades.
In addition, the DP floor leader announced the party's decision to postpone taxation on virtual assets by two years, as the ruling party has insisted, while also signaling intentions to vote against a bill aimed at easing inheritance and gift taxes.
