It has been confirmed that the Ministry of Economy and Finance has finalized the "guidelines for releasing budget request forms." The "budget request forms" that government ministries had been submitting to the ministry in secret will now be made public. However, critics say the "substance" is missing because the scope of disclosure is limited and many items are exempt. In the National Assembly, there is even a move to legally mandate the release of budget request forms.
According to the office of Lim Lee-ja, a People Power Party lawmaker who serves as Chairperson of the Strategy and Finance Committee of the National Assembly, on the 30th, the ministry recently finalized the "guidelines for releasing budget request forms." The disclosure guidelines specifically set out the methods and scope for releasing the budget request forms. It is meaningful in that it decided to disclose budget request forms that have been kept confidential for the past 75 years.
A budget request form is a document that each central government ministry submits to the ministry by May 31 every year. It contains the items and the expense for the projects that each ministry deems necessary. Based on these requests, the ministry increases or decreases the budget size and compiles the final government budget proposal. The budget request forms of each ministry are effectively the draft of the government budget.
However, the ministry has managed the budget request forms as nonpublic until now, citing the potential for confusion if the budget compilation process is made public. Political circles and civic groups have criticized that, because the budget request forms are not disclosed, it is impossible to know how the ministry reviewed and compiled the budget, resulting in a continued "black box compilation."
The change in the ministry's stance stems from a Supreme Court ruling in Mar. The civic groups filed a lawsuit to overturn the decision to deny disclosure of the 2024 government ministries' budget request forms, and they won in both the first and second trials.
The court emphasized, "Taxes paid by the public are the most important source of the budget, and there is a strong need to fully guarantee the public's right to know how taxes are used in the budget compilation process by disclosing the information in this case," adding, "It has greater positive effects in preventing indiscriminate budget requests by ministries and in fostering a sense of responsibility, thereby enhancing the fairness, objectivity, and transparency of budget compilation." Although the ministry appealed, the Supreme Court in Mar. of this year upheld the lower court's ruling, saying, "Disclose the materials."
Although the ministry drew up disclosure guidelines in line with the court's ruling that the public's right to know must be guaranteed, critics say the substance is missing. According to the disclosure guidelines submitted by the ministry to Lim Lee-ja's office, the scope of disclosure is limited to "years in which the budget has been finalized and is being executed or has been completed."
In other words, budget request forms for the following year whose budgets have not been finalized will not be disclosed. For example, based on this year, the budget request forms for the 2025 budget compiled in 2024 will be disclosed, but the 2026 budget request forms, which are under deliberation in the National Assembly, will be excluded.
Chairperson Lim said, "It is a clear deception of the public for the ministry to block the public's right to know despite the court ruling," adding, "The national budget is directly tied to people's lives and must be disclosed transparently."
There is also criticism that the scope of nondisclosure is excessively broad. In the disclosure guidelines, the ministry classified the budget request forms of ministries related to national security and defense, unification, and diplomacy, as well as independent institutions, as all nondisclosable. It also decided not to disclose budget request forms for national research and development (R&D) projects. The budgets for next year alone in the fields explicitly included as nondisclosable amount to 108 trillion won. This means one-seventh of the total budget for next year is placed in the nondisclosure category.
On top of this, it set a broad range of nondisclosable items, including information on specific regional development, support information for specific industries, information that could benefit or disadvantage specific individuals, and content under trial or investigation. Chairperson Lim explained that, if the ministry's guidelines are followed, it is questionable whether there will be any meaningful disclosure of budget request forms.
Chairperson Lim said, "If the Budget Office of the ministry is separated into the Ministry of Planning and Budget under the prime minister in the future, it could compile a black box budget with even greater authority," adding, "Budget request forms must be disclosed so that the national budget can be something the public can accept."
In response, an official at the ministry said, "In principle, each ministry should decide whether to disclose based on its own judgment, and the guidelines in question are a kind of reference material for ministries to consult when disclosing to the public," adding, "As the materials requiring a National Assembly resolution this time, the ministry is preparing to submit the 2026 budget request forms."
Regarding the exclusion of R&D budget request forms, the ministry explained, "Pursuant to Article 9, Paragraph 1, Item 5 of the Official Information Disclosure Act, disclosing matters related to technology development could hinder research and development."
Chairperson Lim is also preparing a bill to mandate the submission of budget request forms to the National Assembly. The aim is to make the disclosure of budget request forms explicit through a legal amendment, rather than through internal ministry guidelines.
In addition, the plan is to amend the relevant laws to require disclosure to the National Assembly of budget allocations under the Special Account for Balanced National Development, in which regions choose and compile their own budgets. Chairperson Lim pointed out, "Under the pretext of precedent, they designate the budget as confidential, distribute it only to local governments, and block outside disclosure at the source."
An official at Lim's office said, "We plan to introduce amendments to the National Finance Act and the Local Autonomy Act soon."