National Assembly speaker sets Dec. 23 as budget deadline

National Assebly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo at an event on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo said he will put the budget proposed by the government or an adjusted version by the Democratic Party (DP) to a vote on Dec. 23 regardless whether the two major parties reach an agreement.

The DP and the People Power Party (PPP) have failed to reach an agreement by two previous deadlines that were set by the speaker — Dec. 15 and 19 — since passing the legal deadline on Dec. 2.

The two parties have been at odds, especially as both have refused to back down over President Yoon Suk-yeol’s push for a 3 percentage point cut on the corporate tax rate.

While the government and the PPP have argued that relatively higher tax rates are weakening the competitiveness of Korea business, the DP, which holds the majority of seats in the National Assembly, said the tax cut will only benefit the rich and the large companies that they own.

Kim tried to bring the two parties to an agreement by suggesting a lowering of the corporate tax by 1 percentage point instead of 3.

While the DP accepted the 24 percent rate, the PPP rejected it on grounds that it is not enough.

Also the two parties have been fighting over the size of budget cuts.

While the DP wants more cut, equivalent to the cuts made during the Moon Jae-in administration, the Yoon government and the PPP argued that they have already slimmed down the budget and that if such aggressive cuts are made, the government won’t be able to function.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]