National Assembly passes unilaterally downsized 2025 budget bill

[Anchor]

Today (Dec. 10), the National Assembly's plenary session passed the budget for next year.

This is the first time in history that the opposition party has unilaterally amended the budget, cutting 4.1 trillion won.

Speaker Woo Won-shik has urged the government to prepare for a supplementary budget draft.

Reporter Son Seo-young has the details.

[Report]

[“I declare that it has been passed.”]

The budget for next year has been finalized at 673.3 trillion won, which is 4.1 trillion won less than the government's proposal.

The ruling and opposition parties had differences in opinion, including over increasing the local regional currency budget. They held negotiations just before the plenary session but failed to reach an agreement, and ultimately, only the opposition's cuts were reflected in the budget that passed the National Assembly.

The vote was 183 in favor, 94 against, and 1 abstention.

This is the first time in constitutional history that the government's budget proposal has passed the plenary session without bipartisan agreement.

First, the contingency fund, which was originally set at 4.8 trillion won, has been reduced to half, to 2.4 trillion won, and the budget for repaying government bonds has also been cut by 500 billion won.

The special activity funds for the presidential office, prosecution, and police have been completely eliminated.

Of the 50.5 billion won budget related to the government's 'Blue Whale Project', 49.7 billion won has been cut, and the budget for the Yongsan Park development project has also been reduced by 22.9 billion won.

[Park Jeong/National Assembly Budget and Settlement Special Committee Chair/Democratic Party: “The scale of the cut, 4.1 trillion won, is only 0.6% of the government budget proposal, and I would like to say that the claim that it harms the people and businesses is completely groundless.”]

[Park Soo-min/National Assembly Budget and Settlement Special Committee Member/People Power Party: “We need to worry about next year's economy. What effect do you expect by unilaterally cutting the government's budget proposal?”]

Speaker Woo Won-shik has asked the government to begin preparing for a supplementary budget draft as soon as the execution of next year's budget starts.

[Woo Won-shik/Speaker of the National Assembly: “The budget for 2025 will pass like this, but this is not the end. Areas that need to be increased for the recovery of people's livelihoods and the economy should be expanded through a supplementary budget.”]

The government has drawn the line on the possibility of an immediate supplementary budget, but considering the recent economic situation and external conditions, there are predictions that discussions will be inevitable in the new year.

Today, the National Assembly also processed 20 budget-related bills, including a revision of the income tax law to abolish the financial investment income tax and to postpone taxation on virtual assets for two years.

This is KBS News, Son Seo-young.