The first main budget proposal of the Lee Jae-myung administration, the 2026 budget bill, passed the Cabinet meeting on the 9th.
The government held a Cabinet meeting at the Yongsan presidential office on the day, presided over by President Lee Jae-myung, and reviewed and approved the 2026 budget bill. The final confirmed budget totals 727.9 trillion won, about 100 billion won less than the government's original submission (about 728 trillion won). Compared with this year's main budget (673.3 trillion won), it is up 8.1%.
Most of the administration's priority projects remained as originally proposed. The 1.15 trillion won support for issuing local love gift certificates and 1 trillion won for the Public Growth Fund were reflected without cuts. By contrast, some artificial intelligence (AI) support budgets and policy funds were reduced. The contingency fund was also cut by about 200 billion won.
Projects with increases were also included. An additional 400 billion won was allocated to build a disaster recovery system at the National Information Resources Service, and 61.8 billion won more to create a new pilot city for commercializing autonomous vehicles.
At the Cabinet meeting, besides the budget bill, items were approved to spend 3,051.43 million won from the purpose contingency fund to support the extensions of the investigation periods for the special counsel investigating the insurrection case and the special counsel on Kim Keon-hee, and to launch a permanent special counsel into the "strip disposal allegations over stamp affixed rights and alleged external pressure not to indict Coupang severance pay."
Also approved on the day was an amendment to the Special Act on the Promotion of Traditional Markets and Shopping Districts (Traditional Markets Act) to block "Onnuri-kkang" (pretending to buy Onnuri gift certificates and then cashing them out) by allowing the imposition of a penalty surcharge of up to three times the amount fraudulently obtained.