5Trillion Supplementary Budget Package Handed in This Week

The government decided to draw up a supplementary budget of 5.55 trillion won at the Cabinet meeting in Cheong Wa Dae, which will be submitted in the National Assembly special session within this week.

With the supplementary budget, the country`s total budget for this year will increase to a great extent from the original of 100 trillion 224.6 billion won to 105 trillion 282.1 billion won, and the year-to-year rate of the budget increase will also rise from 5.6 percent to 10.9 percent.

In this supplementary, the government allocated 3 trillion 552.3 billion won for the subsidiaries to the provincial governments including the province subsidy of 1 trillion 988.2 billion won, and the education subsidy of 1 trillion 564.1 billion won, because the domestic taxes have been collected well last year.

Following the agreement to expand the government`s support to the local health insurance budget, 735.4 billion won was earmarked, and the 450 billion won was assigned for the medical aid to the insured patients. The rate of the health insurance support increased from 27 percent to 40 percent. If the cigarette tax does increase later, the government`s support for the health insurance will rise up to 50 percent.

The government will use 40 billion won in order to pursue the youth unemployment measures such as the expansion of internships for the youth, and the job training programs. And the remaining 277.8 billion won will be set aside as the natural disaster relief reserves. The natural disaster reserve increased from the original budget of 700 billion won to 977.8 billion and the its remainder will rise from 333.7 billion won to 611.5 billion won.

Choi Young-Hae moneychoi@donga.com