National Assembly endorses 34.9 trillion-won extra budget to fight COVID-19

Lawmakers attend the National Assembly plenary session at its main building in Seoul, July 24. Yonhap

The National Assembly approved a 34.9 trillion-won ($30.3 billion) extra budget bill, Saturday, aimed at propping up the economy battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bill was passed at a plenary meeting in a 208 to 17 vote, with 12 abstentions.

The second extra budget this year came as the country is in a semi-lockdown under the toughest Level 4 social distancing measures amid the fourth, and worst, wave of mass COVID-19 infections nationwide.

Through the supplementary budget, most of which will be financed by the country's excess tax revenue, the government will pump a total of about 38 trillion won into the economy to assist small merchants ravaged by antivirus business restrictions and dole out stimulus checks to citizens to buoy the economy.

Of the pandemic response package, more than 5 trillion won was earmarked as relief funds for small merchants, such as operators of restaurants, cafes or private gyms that have been ordered to close or limit their business due to social distancing requirements.

The package will also bankroll stimulus checks to individuals in the bottom 88 percent income bracket as well as a special cash-back reward program, aimed at boosting credit card spending. Every eligible individual will be entitled to 250,000 won of COVID-19 relief payment under the plan.

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) had initially sought universal stimulus checks benefiting all citizens, but reached a compromise deal with the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) to exclude those in the top income brackets.

Including the two this year, the country has drawn up a total of six rounds of extra spending, totaling more than 110 trillion won, so far to tackle the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic since the first local outbreak in late January 2020.

Ahead of the plenary meeting, the DPK and the PPP also reached a reconciliatory deal to split up the chairmanships of the 18 National Assembly standing committees between them.

Under the deal reached between the DPK and PPP floor leaders, the rival parties will divide up the chairman positions in an 11-to-seven ratio in proportion to their shares of Assembly seats during the first half of the current four-year parliamentary term.

The deal will also give the chairmanship of the Special Budget and Accounts Committee, back to the PPP.

Following a bipartisan row, the DPK, after winning a supermajority in the 2020 general election, took control of all 18 Assembly committees and ran them for nearly a year.

Under the new deal, the DPK will hand over control of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, seen as the all-important final gate-keeper for the legislature, to the PPP in the latter half of the Assembly's term.

The parties plan to hold another plenary meeting Aug. 25 to elect the chairpersons for the seven committees reserved for the PPP as well as a deputy speaker from the main opposition party. (Yonhap)