Crucial bills are at risk of being discarded

With the 21st National Assembly scheduled to close on May 29, it will likely miss its last chance to pass a bunch of pending bills that matter to people’s livelihoods and various industries – including bills regarding a special act on the safe and systematic management of high-level radioactive waste; the Depositor Protection Act; and the Distribution Industry Development Act and the National Finance Act. At first, the ruling and main opposition parties were supposed to hold a parliamentary plenary meeting before this session ends this month. However, it is uncertain if they could even get together for discussion as of now as the ruling party made it clear that it would find it difficult to cooperate on the remaining timetable, getting quite upset about the main opposition’s unilateral processing of a special probe bill on the death of Corporal Chae of the Marine Corps. Even if these bills are reintroduced in the next parliamentary session, there will be some inevitable delay in processing them, given that it will take some time to organize the structure of a new legislative body.

The revision to the Distribution Industry Development Act, which has been left undressed in the National Assembly’s political affairs committee, is likely to be invalidated by August if it is not addressed by the end of the 21st National Assembly, said political circles on Sunday. Since it was sent to the subcommittee for review of bills, there has been little discussion in the legislative process, with the political affairs committee faced with disagreement regarding the passage of a bill for those with distinguished contributions to democracy. If the bill in question is overdue, the rate of deposit insurance premium by industry will be reduced to 0.05 percent for banks, 0.10 percent for securities firms, and 0.15 percent for saving banks, respectively. Likewise, a bill regarding the Act on Restriction on Special Cases concerning Taxation, which aims to extend the timeline of tax credit for investment in national strategic facilities from later this year to 2030, is highly likely to miss its deadline if it is carried forward to the next session.

There are still too many bills held back at the standing committee level. For example, the special act on high-level radioactive waste, which helps select sites for after-use nuclear fuel processing and lays the foundation for installation, has been put aside to the negotiating table between the floor leaders of both parties since the main opposition went against the administration’s basic plan to promote nuclear power generation. Similarly, the revision to the Distribution Industry Development Act is still pending as the main opposition opposes it, arguing that traditional market vendors and mom-and-pop stores will fall victim because it excludes “mail-order” large-sized retailers from mandatory day-offs and the limits on business hours.

Another example is the National Finance Act, which lays the basis for the Yoon Suk Yeol administration to limit the annual fiscal deficit to less than three percent of GDP. It has been left unprocessed in the strategy and finance subcommittee since the main opposition disagreed with the bill, which it argues does not handle measures to restructure expenditures. More are waiting in line: a framework bill to define artificial intelligence and give guidelines on nurturing related industries stably and the Act on Restriction on Special Cases concerning Taxation, which ended in 2021, to cut individual consumption tax by 70 percent if a car owner scraps an old car and gets a new one.