Ruling, opposition parties agree on extra budget bill

National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun, second from left, poses with floor leaders of the three major parties — Rep. Chung Jin-suk, left, of the Saenuri Party, Rep. Woo Sang-ho, second from right, of the Minjoo Party of Korea and Rep. Park Jie-won of the People’s Party — before their talks about passing an extra budget bill at the National Assembly in Seoul, Friday. / Yonhap

By Rachel Lee

The ruling and opposition parties agreed Friday to pass the government-proposed supplementary budget bill later this month to invigorate the slumping economy.

During a meeting arranged by National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun, floor leaders from three parties ― Rep. Chung Jin-suk of the ruling Saenuri Party, Rep. Woo Sang-ho of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea and Rep. Park Jie-won of the minor opposition People’s Party ― agreed to convene a provisional session of the National Assembly from Aug. 16 to 31 and will vote on the bill on Aug. 22.

The Special Committee on Budget and Accounts will soon undertake the screening of the budget plan.

Also, the lawmakers decided to hold parliamentary hearings over the troubled Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) at the National Assembly’s strategy and finance and national policy committees from Aug. 23 to 25. The parliament will carry out an investigation into an unofficial meeting between financial officials accused of deciding to pump the taxpayers’ money into DSME.

They also agreed to extend the operation period of the Sewol Special Committee tasked with investigating the sinking of the ferry that left 304 dead or missing. The floor leaders will discuss details of the investigation later.

The floor leaders, Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho, Education Minister Lee Joon-sik and chief policymakers from the three parties will also hold a meeting to discuss together the budget for free childcare.

“This extra budget that opposition parties suggested was about public welfare, including measures to deal with unemployment and the creation of jobs,” Chung said. “The bill should be passed as soon as possible so that it could at least ease frustrations among people in the boiling hot weather.”

The government submitted an 11 trillion won supplementary budget bill to the National Assembly to prop up the economy. But opposition parties demanded the government must decide on a budget for free childcare first in order to pass the bill. They also called for a parliamentary hearing regarding the suspicion that Cheong Wa Dae pressured policy banks to fund the ailing DSME.

A recent audit found that the shipbuilder cooked its books to hide losses in an over 5 trillion won accounting fraud, while the Korea Development Bank (KDB) neglected its duty to check its finances. The KDB and the Export-Import Bank of Korea injected 4.2 trillion won into the ailing shipbuilder last year alone.