The long-delayed budget bill for 2012 will be submitted to the parliament’s plenary session for approval on Saturday, the last day of the year.
Should the bill pass as agreed by rival parties on Friday, the government will be authorized to execute its budget plan from Jan. 1. The budget bill was supposed to have been approved by Dec. 2 to allow 30 days of preparation for the execution of the bill.
“We decided to put off the budget bill approval to the special plenary session on Saturday morning,” said Rep. Jeong Kab-yoon, chairman of the parliamentary budget committee and member of the ruling Grand National Party.
The committee is to hold a final meeting hours before forwarding the bill to the general session, but has already agreed on the total amount and allocation, according to officials.
The GNP and the main opposition Democratic Unified Party held last-minute negotiations Friday and agreed on a 325.5 trillion won ($283 billion) budget bill, down 600 billion won from the original government proposal and 14 trillion won from this year’s budget.
The changes involved a 3.9 trillion won cut to controversial state-funded construction projects including the Jeju naval base and the refurbishment of the four rivers. Research funds for large companies also were reduced.
However, the parties expanded the welfare budget by 3.3 trillion won. The programs whose budgets increased included college scholarship funds, free education for pre-school age children, free school meals and subsidies for farmers and fishermen whose income may decline due to the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.
They also agreed to increase many of the social welfare budgets suggested by Rep. Park Geun-hye, chairperson of the GNP’s emergency leadership council. As she sought, 152.9 billion won was allocated to a subsidy program for job seekers, 154.9 billion won to support the insurance premiums of low-earners and 82.3 billion to lower the interest rate of Income-Contingent Loans for students, according to budget committee officials.
The conservative ruling party’s interim chief has advocated a series of welfare provisions, amid the party’s efforts to renew itself and win back public support, but faced backlash from the opposition camp which accused her of pork barrel spending ahead of next year’s general and presidential elections.
By Bae Hyun-jung (
tellme@heraldcorp.com)
