The Blue House said on the 10th that after the National Assembly passed the first supplementary budget for 2026 totaling 2.62 trillion won, "We are grateful that the ruling and opposition parties put the national interest first and worked together in a bipartisan way in the face of a crisis sparked by the Middle East war."
With this supplementary budget clearing the National Assembly, not only fuel-cost relief payments for high oil prices but also naphtha purchase support, a temporary half-price discount for K-PASS, and measures to ease fuel costs for farmers and fishers are set to move into full implementation.
Blue House senior spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a written briefing, "With the passage of the supplementary budget bill, we are now able to push ahead with essential livelihood support programs," and added, "The Lee Jae-myung administration will move swiftly through follow-up procedures so the impact of the budget is felt on the ground as quickly as possible." The presidential office sees this supplementary budget not as a simple fiscal top-up but as an emergency safety net to respond to prolonged high oil prices and supply chain instability stemming from the Middle East situation, and believes that the success or failure of the policy hinges on the speed of execution.
In last-minute talks, the ruling and opposition parties kept the total size as proposed by the government but tweaked some detailed programs. They each increased the budget for the temporary 50% K-PASS discount by 100 billion won and for stabilizing naphtha supply by 200 billion won, and decided to add 200 billion won to launch oil price–linked subsidies for agricultural machinery, expand tax-free diesel subsidies for those in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, ease fuel costs for coastal passenger ships, and expand support for mineral fertilizers. A revision to the enforcement decree will also be pursued to allow temporary oil price–linked subsidies for chartered buses.
The fuel-cost relief payment for high oil prices, the core sticking point, remained as in the original government plan. Accordingly, 32.56 million people in the bottom 70% by income will receive between a minimum of 100,000 won and a maximum of 600,000 won per person. Some programs that the People Power Party had objected to were adjusted, but the presidential office believes the basic framework of the supplementary budget itself did not waver.
Earlier, President Lee Jae-myung, in a policy speech at the National Assembly on the 2nd, described this supplementary budget as "a breakwater that will protect people's lives from a wave of crisis" and called for swift bipartisan passage. At the time, Lee assessed the aftershocks of the Middle East war as "not a passing shower that briefly falls and stops, but a massive storm that may last for an unknown period," and stressed that this supplementary budget is a so-called "debt-free supplementary budget" that uses 2.52 trillion won in excess tax revenues and 100 billion won in fund resources without issuing Government Bonds.
The Blue House now sees actual execution as more important than parliamentary passage. With energy prices surging and household costs remaining high, the budget must not stop at paperwork approval but translate into easing the burden of transportation fares, fuel costs, and raw material expenses. The presidential office plans to activate a rapid execution system with relevant ministries to confirm the supplementary budget's impact on people's livelihoods early on.