People’s Power leader Joo Ho-young (left) and Democratic Party leader Park Hong-geun are walking to the National Assembly Speaker’s office after a meeting in the meeting room of the National Assembly Steering Committee in Yeouido, Seoul on the 9th. The senior reporter Minkyu Park
On the 9th, the last day of the regular session of the National Assembly, the government and opposition parties continued a last-minute tug-of-war over next year’s budget bill. Leaders of government and opposition parties agreed twice this morning alone, and senior government officials were busy rushing in and out of the National Assembly. Negotiations between the government and opposition parties continued in the afternoon, but the plenary session of the National Assembly scheduled for this afternoon has finally been postponed. Disagreements on whether to cut the top corporate tax rate and on the size of the budget reduction or increase could not be narrowed down.
People’s Power leader Ho-young Joo and Democratic Party leader Park Hong-geun met with heads of political committees of both parties and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance Chu Kyung-ho at National Assembly around 10:30 the same day to discuss the government and opposition parties.
Although the meeting lasted nearly an hour, the two sides failed to close the gap. The central issue was the reduction of the highest corporate tax rate, which the government and the ruling party are promoting. Representative Joo met with reporters after the meeting and said, “Despite National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo’s arbitration proposal (which reduces the top tax rate but delays implementation by two years), the Democratic Party cannot (accept) lower the maximum corporate tax rate.” “I haven’t seen any access to comments,” he said.
The two floor leaders then moved into President Kim’s room at around 11:30 and continued negotiations, but failed to produce any results. A high-pitched voice came out during the meeting.
This morning was defined as the ‘golden moment’ for the approval of the budget in the Ordinary National Assembly. To submit a budget bill to the Plenary Assembly, it is necessary to proceed with the so-called ‘sheet work’ (coefficient adjustment work) of the budget bill, which refines specific numbers on the basis of the contents agreed by the party leaders of government and opposition, because the work usually takes about 12 hours.
If the budget negotiations and work on the papers cannot be completed on this day, the governing and opposition parties will pass the regular session of the National Assembly to draft the budget bill for the first time since the implementation of the Law on the progress of the National Assembly in 2014, when the automatic budget billing system was introduced.
At around 12:05, after the meeting chaired by President Kim, Won-nae Park told reporters, “The issue is still unresolved.” I asked and walked out,” he said. The reason why the loud voice came out at the meeting was explained that “the president said forcefully that the budget bill is a priority, and there was a difference of position in this regard”.
The plenary session, scheduled for that day at 14.00, has been postponed. Around 14:00 in the National Assembly, in response to reporters’ question: “Is it difficult to hold a plenary session today?”
The Democratic Party was able to vote on the proposal to fire Lee on this day. People power was the position that had to be dealt with first with the budget bill.
The Democratic Party held a closed-door emergency general meeting of lawmakers this afternoon. Oh Yeong-hwan, spokesman for the Democratic Party, said, “It is a situation where physical work has become difficult in practice to reach an agreement after an amendment was prepared following further negotiations between opposition parties today. To pass the budget bill in the Ordinary National Assembly, the only way to deal with it is to raise the government’s original bill or the Democratic Party’s revised bill. It is explained that even if the government and opposition parties reach a dramatic agreement, it has become difficult to submit the budget bill to the plenary session and process it.
Senior government officials also visited the National Assembly. Deputy Prime Minister Chu told reporters after meeting with floor leader Joo that afternoon, “The position of the opposition party is still stubborn to narrow the point of contact, so (he said) that floor leaders of both parties take the rest of the decision”.
Lee Jin-bok, senior presidential secretary for political affairs, also had a meeting with the team leader. Chief Lee responded, “I feel the same way” to reporters who said, “It appears the budget bill will not be drafted in the regular session of the National Assembly.” He said, “Minister Chu has left and (now) it’s up to the National Assembly.” However, when reporters asked him that “the Democratic Party is said to be issuing a single amendment,” he replied, “(The Democratic Party) will have to judge whether that’s the right path.”
People power and the Democratic Party worked until the last minute to close the gap on the scope of budget cuts and corporate tax cuts. People Power argued that it would be difficult to reduce more than 3 trillion won because the government’s plan was originally a budget plan with a tight belt, and the Democratic Party argued that about 5.1 trillion won, the reduction average over the past five years, should be cut. In the case of the corporate tax, People’s Power has insisted on reducing the top tax rate from 25% to 22%, but the Democratic Party has stuck to the current 25%, saying it is a tax cut for large corporations.
