National Assembly passes downsized 2025 budget bill

Dec 11, 2024, 12:20 pm

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The 2025 budget bill is being passed at a plenary session of the National Assembly on Dec. 10, 2024./ Source: Yonhap News

AsiaToday reporter Park Young-hoon

The National Assembly on Tuesday passed next year’s budget bill of 673.3 trillion won (US$471.5 billion). It marks the first time in the constitutional history of Korea that a budget plan submitted by the government was passed in the plenary session without bipartisan agreement.

The budget bill passed in a 183-94 vote with one abstention. The ruling People Power Party (PPP) lawmakers and the New Reform Party’s Lee Joon-seok and Lee Joo-young were against.

The budget bill has been finalized at 673.3 trillion won, which is 4.1 trillion won less that the government’s proposal. The National Assembly needs to obtain government consent in order to increase the budget or create new budget items, but it has not received government consent since there is no increase.

The special activity funds for the presidential office, the national security office, prosecution, and police have been eliminated.

The contingency fund, which was originally set at 4.8 trillion won, has been reduced to half, to 2.4 trillion won, and the budget for repaying government bonds has also been cut by 500 billion won.

“The Democratic party is using the budget as a tool for political strife as if it were Lee Jae-myung’s personal budget, “ Kim Sang-hoon, chairman of the People Power Party’s policy committee, said. “The DP should be fully responsible if problems arise, such as the state losing its ability to respond to the crisis and failing to properly investigate crimes that infringe on people’s livelihoods due to the passage of the revised bill,” he said.

Jin Sung-joon, chairman of the policy committee of the Democratic Party, said they approved the budget bill handled by the budget and accounts committee as public unrest is growing amid economic crisis due to the martial law turmoil.

#budget bill #National Assembly