The ruling and opposition parties agree on a supplementary budget plan for loss compensation three days before the June 1 local elections

6 million to a maximum of 10 million won for 3.71 million businesses… Consultation on retrospective application and income reversal issues

Evening plenary session… Supplementary budget from 36.4 trillion won to 39 trillion won, 62 trillion won before relocation

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Yeon-jung, Ko Sang-min, Park Hyeong-bin, Hong Jun-seok = The ruling and opposition parties agreed on the 29th to process an additional supplementary budget (additional budget) for loss compensation for the self-employed and small business owners.

The opposition and opposition parties have been struggling over the supplementary budget negotiations, but reached an agreement three days before the June 1 local elections. The supplementary budget bill will be decided by the supplementary budget bill review subcommittee and the pre-decision committee at 9:00 p.m., and will be processed at the plenary session convened at 7:30 p.m. on the same day.

At midnight on the same day, the term of National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seok, who served as the speaker of the first half of the 21st National Assembly, was due to end, so the ruling and opposition parties reached an agreement dramatically through negotiations on the ‘end of the cliff’.

However, the opposition and opposition parties decided to continue discussions on the issue of retroactive application and income reversal related to loss compensation, which were the biggest issues until the last minute.

People’s Power Kwon Seong-dong and the Democratic Party’s floor leader Park Hong-geun made the announcement this morning after meeting in the Speaker’s Office of the main building of the National Assembly, presided over by National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seok, and then holding a press conference respectively.

At the meeting, floor leader Kwon Seong-dong said, “The opposition and opposition parties have reached an amicable agreement on the handling of the supplementary budget bill. We have largely accepted what the Democrats are asking for.” I am happy and fortunate,” he said.

Park Hong-geun, floor leader Park Hong-geun, said at the meeting, “The Democratic Party has made a grand decision to deal with the supplementary budget today with a desperate heart that it should overcome difficult people’s livelihoods as soon as possible and give hope to all people, including the self-employed and small business owners.”

First of all, the opposition and opposition parties decided to ease the payment target sales standard from ‘3 billion won or less’ to ‘5 billion won or less’, which was one of the issues, to pay 6 million won to 10 million won to 3.71 million businesses nationwide.

In the case of legal loss compensation for small business owners and the self-employed, the target of payment was expanded from ‘small businesses with sales of 1 billion won or less’ to ‘medium companies with sales of 3 billion won or less’, and the compensation rate was increased from 90% to 100%. The lower limit was also raised from 500,000 won to 1 million won.

At the same time, the ruling and opposition parties agreed to pay 2 million won in support for special employment (special high schools), freelancers, and cultural artists, an increase of 1 million won compared to the original government plan.

The subsidy for corporate taxi and chartered bus drivers will be 3 million won, an increase of 1 million won from the original government plan.

In order to issue an additional 2.5 trillion won worth of local love gift certificates, which have already been used up by more than 50%, the government decided to provide an additional 100 billion won from the national treasury.

In addition, it was decided to add 400 billion won in kind to Camco (Korea Asset Management Corporation) investment (0.7 trillion won) for debt adjustment of non-performing loans in order to provide financial support to small businesses. Through this, support for debt restructuring of small business owners and the self-employed is wider than the 30 trillion won government proposed. The amount of government support has been increased to expand the supply of special guarantees for new loans from KRW 3 trillion to KRW 4.2 trillion, and support for repayment loans from KRW 7.5 trillion to KRW 8.5 trillion.

In order to alleviate the burden on livestock farmers, the interest rate on special feed purchase funds was lowered from 1.8% to 1%. A new subsidy of 20 billion won has been allocated to support fishermen for fuel costs.

In order to effectively respond to frequent wildfires, the budget for the introduction of additional forest fire-fighting helicopters, emergency fire-fighting systems for villages adjacent to forests, and securing specialized fire-fighting vehicles for forest fires has been increased by 13 billion won compared to the government plan.

The budget related to quarantine treatment expenses, funeral expenses for the deceased, and personnel expenses for dispatched medical personnel due to COVID-19 increased by 1.1 trillion won from the government plan (6.1 trillion won) to a total of 7.2 trillion won.

Regarding the SOC (Social Overhead Capital) project for balanced regional development, which was reduced in this supplementary budget, it was decided to express it in the side opinion so that the appropriate budget for the early completion according to the originally planned project proposal could be reflected. In addition, some 200 billion won was restored by adjusting some of the 7 trillion won spending restructuring plan drawn up by the government.

Over the fact that the retroactive application was not reflected in the supplementary budget on the day, there was a war of nerves between the ruling and opposition floor leaders.

Representative Kwon said, “Retroactive application was not possible because there was no legal basis for retroactive application of the Loss Compensation Act passed by the Democratic Party of Korea. We considered it to be included in the amount,” he said.

He continued, “Some of the self-employed who have suffered losses will not be able to apply retroactively, so even receiving 6 to 10 million won will be insufficient. ),” he apologized.

On the other hand, floor leader Park said that the retroactive application of loss compensation was not reflected in the supplementary budget bill, saying, “The ruling party, which will take on unlimited responsibility for people’s livelihood, has blocked the path to full compensation for losses. We once again express our deep regret for the ruling party’s neglect of the people’s livelihood.”

He said, “It is regrettable and insufficient, but I will deal with this supplementary budget first and then supplement it later.” I will do my best as much as I can,” he emphasized.

The actual amount of expenditure on the supplementary budget bill, which was originally 36.4 trillion won in the government bill, was expanded to 39 trillion won through discussions between the ruling and opposition parties. Including relocation expenses, the total amount will increase from 59.4 trillion won to 62 trillion won.

The government bond repayment amount will be reduced from 9 trillion won to 7.5 trillion won in order to raise funds necessary for additional spending according to the agreement between the ruling and opposition parties. The scale of the restructuring of spending is also expected to be partially reduced from the 7 trillion won originally planned by the government. However, as originally planned by the government and the ruling party, the government decided not to issue deficit bonds.

The opposition and opposition parties are expected to process 110 bills along with the supplementary budget bill at the plenary session this evening.