With the 2027 budget bill unveiled on the 1st, government ministries are rushing to promote it as the "largest ever" and boasting the "highest expenditure growth rate on record."
That day, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources said, "Next year's budget bill is set at a record-high 13.2573 trillion won," adding, "Up 40.5% from the main budget, it is the highest growth rate since MOTI was launched." The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport also said, "We have drawn up next year's budget bill at a record 69 trillion won."
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs also said, "Both the increase in amount and the growth rate of next year's budget are the highest since 2000." The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said, "The growth rate of next year's budget bill is 10.8%, the highest since the MOF was reestablished in 2013." The Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment also said, "Next year's budget has been drawn up at the largest scale on record."
Government ministries were able to each craft a "largest ever" budget bill because the overall scale of fiscal expenditure itself has risen sharply. Using excess tax revenue from a semiconductor boom as funding, next year's fiscal expenditure will be increased by 12.8% from this year's main budget to 820.9 trillion won. Next year's total expenditure growth rate is the highest on record, surpassing 2009 (10.9%) during the global financial crisis.
Against this backdrop, questions are being raised about whether it is appropriate to expand ministries' continuing programs by relying on excess tax revenue—whose sustainability cannot be assured—when national debt has far exceeded 1,000 trillion won.
A civil servant at a government ministry said, "Cash support such as a basic income program for rural communities is nearly impossible to sunset once it begins," adding, "Even if tax revenue is set aside in a future-response fund, the expenditure scale is so large that it is uncertain whether fiscal stabilization measures can function properly."
Another civil servant said, "If you received a record-large budget, it seems more appropriate to promote that 'we will spend carefully and wisely the precious money paid in taxes by the public.'"