"Supreme Court Justices' monthly incentive of 2 million won is inappropriate... Appropriate budget deliberation in the National Assembly"
“If the budget for housing supply is insufficient, additional support will be provided through excess tax revenue this year.”
(Sejong = Yonhap News) Reporters Lee Dae-hee, Ahn Chae-won, and Song Jeong-eun = Minister of Planning and Budget Park Hong-geun said on the 8th that he would "utilize other financial resources" in response to President Lee Jae-myung's proposal to consider using the Future Response Fund to support holiday discounts.
Minister Park said this in response to the criticism of People Power Party lawmaker Bae Jun-young during the National Assembly's Finance and Economic Planning Committee's inspection of the Planning Department on this day.
Previously, at the Cabinet meeting on the 29th of last month, President Lee proposed setting aside a budget of close to 1 trillion won to support discounts on agricultural, livestock and fishery products during the holidays, and mentioned that the use of the future response fund could be considered with the funds.
Minister Park responded by saying, “I understand that the President was speaking generally without knowing the details of the Future Response Fund’s business or business details,” and explained, “Regarding the holidays, it has already been organized this year, including changes in fund operation in one way or another.”
When Rep. Bae pressed for an answer, saying, "So you're not going to use (the holiday support budget) from the Future Response Fund next year?" he replied, "You already know the nature of the Future Response Fund, right?" and "It doesn't fall under that (budget support). We'll use other financial resources."
Despite the Board of Audit and Inspection's criticism, Minister Park announced that he would reexamine the Supreme Court Justices' encouragement money included in next year's budget through review by the National Assembly.
Representative Kim Nam-geun of the Democratic Party of Korea pointed out, "According to the results of the regular audit of the Supreme Court announced by the Board of Audit and Inspection last month, the Supreme Court pointed out that incentives were paid to Supreme Court justices without any basis in law and issued a warning," and added, "Despite these criticisms, the Supreme Court's incentives next year increased by 300 million won compared to this year."
In response, Minister Park explained, "The judges were regularly given an average incentive of 2 million won per month, and the audit results were announced while next year's budget plan was practically finalized. The 300 million won was an increase of 300 million won by the Supreme Court on its own."
At the same time, he said, “We also believe that this was inappropriate execution because incentives without legal basis were regularly paid,” and “taking into account the comments from the Board of Audit and Inspection and the National Assembly, we will deliberate at an appropriate level at the National Assembly (budget) review stage.”
In response to a question from Rep. Ki-hyung Oh of the Democratic Party of Korea on whether the budget related to the government's housing supply plan has been properly allocated, Minister Park said, "Supply is as supplied, and in particular, we have reflected everything necessary to achieve the goal of 1.19 million homes in terms of the recently announced housing stabilization measures." He added, "If it is insufficient, we will consider additional support using this year's excess tax revenue."
