Gov't ministries seek 6 percent budget hike for next year

South Korea's government ministries and agencies have requested a 6 percent hike in their budgets for next year as they want to spend more on welfare, education, and research and development, the finance ministry said Thursday.

The ministries and agencies asked for the central government to set aside a combined 377 trillion won ($370.3 billion) for next year, compared with this year' budget of 355.8 trillion won, according to the ministry.

The hike is mostly attributed to a 10.8 percent budget increase requested for the health, welfare and labor sectors. About 118 trillion won was demanded for those areas, up from this year's 106.4 trillion won.

The amount of money requested for education expanded 10.7 percent to 56.1 trillion won, the ministry said.

Requested money for R&D and national defense grew 6.1 percent and 7.5 percent to 18.8 trillion won and 38.4 trillion won, respectively. Budget demanded for public safety also rose 6.3 percent to 16.8 trillion won.

The budget request for social overhead capital, however, declined 7.5 percent to 21.9 trillion won, the ministry said.

Based on the requests, the ministry will have consultations with concerned parties in the months to come before determining its final budget proposal. The ministry will then submit this proposal to the National Assembly for approval by Sept. 23. (Yonhap)