Finance minister to advise president to veto bill to end automatic budget tabling

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Finance minister to advise president to veto bill to end automatic budget tabling

Published: 28 Nov. 2024, 17:20

Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok speaks during a press briefing in Seoul on Nov. 28, 2024, in this photo provided by the ministry. [YONHAP]

Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok said Thursday he will recommend President Yoon Suk Yeol veto a revision bill that would abolish the automatic forwarding of the government's budget proposal to a parliamentary plenary session if bipartisan agreement in committee is not reached by the deadline.

Earlier in the day, the opposition-controlled National Assembly passed the revision to the National Assembly Act that eliminates the system of automatically forwarding the government's budget proposal and related bills when they fail to pass out of parliamentary standing committees by Nov. 30.

"If the system is abolished, the parliamentary standing committees responsible for budget reviews will no longer face deadlines, significantly increasing the likelihood of missing the constitutional deadline of Dec. 2," Choi said during a press briefing.

The statutory deadline for approving the national budget is Dec. 2, but the National Assembly has managed to meet it only twice in the past two decades. Currently, rival parties are locked in a standoff over the government's spending plan for next year, raising concerns about yet another failure to meet the deadline.

"As the minister in charge [of the budget], I deeply regret the unilateral handling of this legislative amendment," Choi said, adding that he will ask the president to exercise his constitutional authority to veto the revision.

The automatic forwarding provision was introduced in 2014 to prevent legislative gridlock, the minister noted.

Since taking office in May 2022, Yoon has exercised his veto power 12 times, with a total of 25 bills rejected amid standoffs with the opposition-controlled National Assembly.

Yonhap