A supplementary budget totaling 26.2 trillion won passed the National Assembly's plenary session on the night of Apr. 10. The ruling and opposition parties agreed at the last minute to leave the aggregates of the government's proposal untouched while cutting and increasing line items to reallocate funds. Of 244 lawmakers present, 214 voted in favor, 11 opposed, and 19 abstained, passing the supplementary budget. It came 10 days after the government submitted the plan and eight days after President Lee Jae-myung's Apr. 2 policy address.
The focus is on item adjustments rather than the aggregates. During the Special Committee on Budget & Accounts review, 794.2 billion won was cut and 790.8 billion won was added compared with the government's submission, for a net decrease of 3.4 billion won. But with the parties applying a principle of increases within the cut range, the overall size of the supplementary budget remained at the government's 26.2 trillion won level.
The cuts centered on policy finance, employment, and fund budgets. Contributions to the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT) were reduced by 50 billion won, and grants to the Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) were reduced by 40 billion won. The 110 billion won appropriation for the parent fund association for small and medium-sized enterprises, the 25 billion won appropriation for the K-content fund, and 101.8 billion won for the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL)'s National Tomorrow Learning Card program were also cut. The parties trimmed programs seen as having relatively more room for adjustment within the government plan to secure resources for increases.
By contrast, increases focused on responding to high oil prices and tangible livelihood support. An additional 102.7 billion won was added to temporarily discount K-Pass fares by 50%, and 204.9 billion won was added to stabilize naphtha supply. A new 52.9 billion won price-linked subsidy for duty-free diesel for three types of agricultural machinery was included. In addition, subsidies for duty-free diesel for those in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries were increased by 11.2 billion won, short-term deficit support for coastal passenger routes by 6.8 billion won, and fuel cost support for coastal cargo ships by 2.3 billion won.
Support payments for damage from high oil prices, the core project of this supplementary budget, remained as in the original government plan. Accordingly, the 4.8 trillion won program to provide 100,000 to 600,000 won per person to the bottom 70% of earners by income will proceed as is. With the parties keeping the aggregates intact while tweaking only the details, some assess this supplementary budget as "keeping the original aggregates and reallocating livelihood budgets."