Public offices seek to spend W364.7tr in 2014

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Tuesday that government agencies requested a total of 364.7 trillion won for spending next year, up about 23 trillion won, or 6.6 percent, from this year.

Higher budget demands come as government agencies seek to increase spending on welfare, social security and research and development, the Finance Ministry explained in a press statement.

Government agencies allocated expenditures of 342 trillion won, including 98.4 trillion won from public funds, this year, it noted.

An increase of 6.6 percent in spending next year comes from ministries’ plans to boost support to the elderly via basic senior pension funds whose total payments will jump by 2.2 trillion won to 5.4 trillion won in 2014.

It will increase its budget allocation to four pension providers ― the National Pension Service, Teachers’ Pension, Government Employees Pension and Military Mutual Aid ― by 2.3 trillion won to 29.3 trillion won next year.

Also, state R&D spending will increase by about 900 billion won to 17.8 trillion won for the development of Korea’s new growth engines or the “creative economy.”

Government agencies will set aside about 1.2 trillion won for the supply of public housing to mid-income families and 2.8 trillion won to improve public pre-school and high school education systems.

Meanwhile, government ministries’ budget requests for infrastructure and energy development decreased.

The Finance Ministry said that such a decline comes as the government seeks to focus on carrying out existing projects that faced a temporarily standstill due to the global financial crisis. The government is expected to further open public projects to the private sector to make up for a shortfall in infrastructure investment.

Also, a decrease in energy development spending follows an investment decline in overseas energy projects and an improvement in electric utility systems for efficiency.

The Finance Ministry plans to devise a budget bill over the next two months with lawmakers for National Assembly approval by the end of this year.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)