South Korea's parliament was set to pass a 13.8 trillion won ($9.7 billion) extra budget bill at its plenary session Thursday, to aid recovery in regions affected by March's massive wildfires and address uncertainties posed by US tariff threats.
It would be the first supplementary budget greenlighted by the parliament for this year, after the annual budget was confirmed to be 673.3 trillion won in December. The plenary session was scheduled for 8 p.m. Thursday.
This follows a bipartisan compromise reached between the liberal Democratic Party of Korea and conservative People Power Party. Earlier Thursday, the parties agreed to increase the size of the budget spending package by 1.6 trillion won from the initial 12.2 trillion won that gained Cabinet approval on April 18.
Following the bipartisan agreement, an additional 400 billion won will be spent to allow local governments to issue more vouchers, dubbed "community-based gift certificates," to boost consumer spending.
The revised supplementary budget plan also reflected a 200 billion won addition to make up for the discounting of agricultural and marine goods from regions affected by the March wildfires, as well as 800 billion won to prop up the construction of public housing facilities, roads and railways.
Additionally, the prior budget cut led by the Democratic Party was partially recovered. About 50 billion won will be allocated for special expenses for the prosecution, and 4.5 billion won will be allocated for the state-run Board of Audit and Inspection.
The aforementioned spending is in addition to the government's package for supporting regions affected by the historic wildfires that ravaged 104,000 hectares of land, equivalent to over 145,000 soccer fields, in the southeastern region worth 3.2 trillion won, addressing trade uncertainties with 4.4 trillion won and beefing up domestic consumption though a 4.3 trillion won package.
People Power Party Floor Leader Rep. Kweon Seong-dong said the extra budget would "provide new hope to the victims of the wildfires," adding the party worked to "restore the budget for livelihoods and investigation" that was cut by the opposing party.
Kweon added that the conservative party also worked to minimize the increase of the state's debt.
Democratic Party of Korea Floor Leader Rep. Park Chan-dae, meanwhile, said the increase might not be sufficient to support the livelihoods of the people, adding that his party had envisioned a 35 trillion won supplementary budget bill.
consnow@heraldcorp.com
