President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol today (22nd) formalized the policy of organizing the second supplementary budget (additional budget) to support compensation for COVID-19 damage to small business owners and self-employed people.
As the Democratic Party of Korea is also in the position that an 'April supplementary budget' is necessary, discussions on the second supplementary budget focusing on supporting small businesses are expected to take off.
However, as concerns about stagflation and national debt are rising, further discussion is needed on the size and financing plan.
President-elect Yoon held a meeting of the executive committee of the Presidential Transition Committee today (the 22nd) at the office in Tongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul and said, "If you make a specific program for the loss compensation plan for small business owners and self-employed people, you can request an additional budget to the current government as soon as possible, and (the current government) If they don't, I think we will have to expedite the plan to send the prepared supplementary budget (to the National Assembly) as soon as the government takes office," he said.
This means that the transition committee will prepare an additional budget plan, but if it is discussed with the current government, it will be formed and submitted to the National Assembly immediately.
“If the people are willing to realize the April supplementary budget, we need to quickly discuss ways to raise financial resources and the size of the supplementary budget,” said Yun Ho-jung, chairman of the Democratic Party’s emergency countermeasures committee, at a meeting of the National Assembly today. Discussions on the supplementary budget should be held as soon as possible,” he said.
If the current government or the Democratic Party strongly disagree with the transition committee's supplementary budget plan, the submission or processing of the supplementary budget to the National Assembly may be delayed after the inauguration of the new government. It is dominant.
The transition committee plans to prepare the specific size and contents of the additional budget in the Corona Emergency Response Special Committee directly led by Ahn Cheol-soo, the transition chairperson.
The core of the supplementary budget seems to be support for small businesses, which both the opposition and opposition parties are mentioning.
In particular, it is expected that the '50 trillion won support for small businesses' that President-elect Yoon promised during his time as a candidate will be included in the additional budget of the transition committee.
Previously, President-elect Yoon presented a plan to invest 50 trillion won in financial funds to 'just and complete loss compensation', which expanded both the scale and the target under the judgment that the current government's loss compensation method was incomplete.
Specifically, he announced that he would provide up to 50 million won to small business owners in proportion to the severity of regulations such as business restrictions and the degree of damage, but half of the support would be compensated based on administrative data held by the National Tax Service and local governments.
He announced that he would extend the maturity of existing loans for small business owners, self-employed people, and SMEs to a sufficient extent, and increase financial support such as tax support for taxes, utilities, rent, and labor costs, and low-interest loans.
At the same time, we promised an emergency relief debt restructuring that reduces the principal of small debts by up to 90%.
In addition to this, President-elect Yoon announced that he would pay an additional 6 million won as the 3 million won quarantine subsidy paid to 3.32 million small businesses and small businesses with reduced sales through the first supplementary budget was insufficient.
(Photo = National Assembly Photo Reporters, Yonhap News)