The commuter buses that had been provided to civil servants living in the Seoul metropolitan area for commuting to the Seoul and Gwacheon government complexes are expected to be discontinued starting next year. Instead, the government plans to allocate more budget to support commuter buses in areas with weak public transportation, such as the Sejong Government Complex. The decision follows a review of the performance of fiscal programs implemented this year, which found the need for support to be low.
The Ministry of Planning and Budget said on the 18th that, based on the Integrated Fiscal Project Performance Evaluation results, it decided to abolish three of the 2,487 fiscal programs evaluated, cut funding for 858, and consolidate 40. For 1,487 programs, it issued a "program improvement" assessment.
This is the first time the integrated fiscal project performance evaluation has been introduced. Of roughly 9,800 total discretionary expenditure programs budgeted this year, 2,487 were evaluated after excluding programs for which performance management is not possible—such as personnel expenses, basic operating costs, and legal earmarked tax—R&D (research and development) programs subject to separate large-scale individual evaluations, and small programs under 3 billion won where the benefit of evaluation is low.
Programs rated for "abolition" are three: ▲ Building a foundation to foster the 3D printing industry (Ministry of Science and ICT · 4.6 billion won) ▲ Jeju Marine Healing Center (Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries · 3.5 billion won) ▲ Temporary support to add Seoul urban rail rolling stock (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport · 6.4 billion won).
An official at the Ministry of Planning and Budget said, "In the case of 3D printing, the program has continued for a long time, the private sector's capacity has improved, and the need for government intervention has decreased. For the Jeju Marine Healing Center, we considered that similar programs are being implemented by the private sector or local governments in several regions," adding, "The Seoul urban rail support program lacked a clear legal basis, and its execution rate was low (0% in 2024 and 16% in 2025)."
Other programs that received a "cut" rating include: ▲ Operation of commuter buses for civil servants (Ministry of the Interior and Safety · 5.7 billion won) ▲ National smoking cessation support service (Ministry of Health and Welfare · 92.9 billion won) ▲ Grants to the Korea INclusive Finance Agency (KINFA) for the Youth Leap Account (Financial Services Commission · 124.2 billion won) ▲ New Growth Partnership Program (ODA · Ministry of Foreign Affairs · 52.9 billion won).
An official at the Ministry of Planning and Budget said, "These results will be linked to the 2027 government budget formulation for expenditure restructuring," adding, "If we apply the principle of 'cuts of 15% or more' to programs that received a 'cut' rating in the integrated evaluation, we estimate savings of about 7.7 trillion won."