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Hwang Bo-yeon, chief of the Economic Policy Office under the Seoul city government, speaks during a press conference held at the government office building in central Seoul, Wednesday. (Yonhap) |
The Seoul city government on Wednesday announced it would propose a record-breaking extra budget of 6.37 trillion won ($4.88 billion). The city government will submit the proposal on the same day to the Seoul Metropolitan Council, which would start its review on Friday this week.
The budget is the first supplementary budget proposal since Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon began his new term earlier this month. It is also the largest extra budget ever, following the previous record-high extra budget of 4.23 trillion, drawn up by the city government last year.
If the extra budget proposal passes the city council, the city government’s combined budget for this year will increase 13.9 percent to 52.18 trillion won – making it the highest city government budget of all time.
Hwang Bo-yeon, chief of the Economic Policy Office under the city government, said the city has decided to propose the extra budget to counter imminent difficulties that the city and its citizens are facing.
The latest extra budget proposal includes the city government’s 401.1 billion won of planned expenditure on public order and safety. This includes public safety spending of 55.9 billion won for people living in cheap rooming houses, children from low-income families and people with disabilities. To improve mobility rights of people with disabilities, the city government will spend 12.3 billion won to install elevators, escalators and wheelchair lifts in subway stations. The government has allocated 12 billion won to help young people living in the city with rental expenses.
The extra budget also consists of 194.2 billion won on social spending. This includes 67 billion won for people with disabilities, 37.4 billion won for elderly people’s pensions and 14.4 billion won for child care benefits.
A total of 383.4 billion won will be spent on improving the city’s infrastructure as well. For future mobility and electric-vehicle charging infrastructure, the city will spend 137.6 billion won, while injecting 25.9 billion won into a park construction in the area close to the National Assembly in Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul.
In response to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the city government will spend 411 billion won on financial support to people infected with the virus, as well for lump sum payments to people who have to quarantine and cannot make income due to COVID-19.
The Seoul city government also prepared a 498.8 billion won relief budget for public transportation operators whose bottom lines have been hit by slashed public transit demand during the pandemic. The financial support is in part compensation for the city government‘s decision to freeze public transit fares for the past seven years under Seoul Mayor Oh.
Seoul Metro, the operator of the Seoul subway system, will receive 150 billion won as compensation for its losses, while bus operators will get a total of 330 billion won if the extra budget proposal passes the city council.
Hwang expected the proposal to be passed at city council without opposition. The central government is also demanding all local governments to swiftly execute extra budgets, Hwang added.
By Shim Woo-hyun (
ws@heraldcorp.com)
