The National Assembly on Monday started in earnest to deliberate on the 667.4 trillion won ($483.4 billion) government budget for next year. The budget increased a modest 3.2 percent year over year.
Deliberation ends in the general meeting of the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts on Nov. 29. Voting on the budget bill is slated for Dec. 2 in the Assembly plenary session.
The ruling People Power Party makes much of fiscal austerity, while the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea regards the budget as too stingy. The opposition party should understand fiscal difficulties facing the current administration. Last year, tax revenue fell as much as 50 trillion won short, and this year will likely see a tax revenue deficit of 30 trillion won. According to the National Assembly Budget Office, 4 trillion won less in taxes is expected to be collected next year.
Deliberation and the voting schedule can be disrupted by two issues. One is how the Democratic Party's push for a special counsel investigation of allegations involving first lady Kim Keon Hee will play out. It plans to put a related bill to vote in an Assembly plenary session on Nov. 14. If President Yoon Suk Yeol vetoes the bill, as he previously did for two similar bills, the party will seek a revote on Nov. 28.
The other issue is what decisions the court will hand down on Lee Jae-myung, leader of the party. The initial rulings on his charges of election law violation and subornation of perjury are scheduled for Nov. 15 and Nov. 25, respectively.
The point of the opposition party's budget review lies in putting a brake on what Yoon and Kim try to do. It will reportedly attempt to slash budgets for projects that Yoon promised during town hall meetings and a few projects that the first lady showed interest in. It also seeks to eliminate all prosecutors' "special activities" expenditures.
It also plans to increase budgets related to Lee's signature policies.
Among them is budget for local vouchers. It is contradictory to dismiss projects residents wanted at town halls while attempting to increase the budget for free local vouchers. It is hard to understand that the budget for suicide prevention should be cut just because Kim showed interest in the matter. Its demand for budgetary support for offering free high school education and supplying electric power 100 percent generated by renewable energy to companies is populist, or economically questionable.
It is undesirable to attempt to revise the National Assembly Act clause on the automatic referral of budget bills. Under the act, if budget deliberation is not done by Nov. 30, the original version of the government budget and incidental bills are automatically referred to the plenary session on Dec. 2. This clause was introduced in 2014 to put pressure on lawmakers to meet the voting deadline, but budget bills have been passed so far as scheduled only twice. As a matter of fact, the clause was neutralized amid political strife.
By the way, the party seeks even to scrap this clause and make a new one dictating that the speaker should set the voting day through negotiation with representatives of parties. The revision bill recently passed the relevant subcommittee, but the president is likely to veto it. It is questionable if the majority opposition party tries to adjust government budget as they please without coming under time pressure.
The ruling party is said to have drawn the line against increase in budgets connected to Lee's policies.
Though tax revenue is expected to fall short for three straight years, fiscal support must be generous for future growth areas such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence. Also, support for economically disadvantaged people should be given a higher priority.
Pushing back against populism and improving financial health are key responsibilities of the government and the ruling party. A tight budget is not popular, but it is unavoidable in order to leave more fiscal room for the next government. The Assembly should not put a damper on such efforts.
