The ruling and opposition parties came close to agreement Friday on major contentious points in next year's budget, an official said, paving the way for the National Assembly to pass the budget bill before the deadline just three days away.
The leaders of the parliamentary budget committee -- Rep. Kim Hack-yong of the ruling Saenuri Party and Rep. Choi Jae-sung of the main opposition Democratic United Party -- worked out nearly all differences when they met at the National Assembly, said the official close to the committee.
"Agreement was almost reached on key contentious points in the new year's budget between the ruling and opposition parties," the official said. "The total size of the budget was not determined, however, because details can be fine-tuned."
The two sides have agreed on a tentative gross expenditure of roughly 342.7 trillion won ($321.3 billion). The amount is about 200 billion won larger than the government's initial plan.
The gross government revenue is expected to total 373.3 trillion won, which is also 200 billion won more than what the government had planned. The National Assembly should approve the budget before year's end on Monday.
One of the most contentious points has been the ruling party's demand to increase the budget by 6 trillion won for welfare projects, including 1.6 trillion won worth of projects pledged by President-elect Park Geun-hye during her election campaigning.
The opposition party has been against the demand.
As to how to raise the money necessary for the projects, the rival parties agreed to raise 900 billion won by issuing state bonds, the official said. The ruling party had earlier demanded raising 2 trillion won through bond issuance.
With the state bond issuance, the two sides have agreed to reflect between 2 to 3 trillion won of the 6 trillion won.
The budget committee is expected to hold a subcommittee meeting to finalize the budget, and the National Assembly is expected to hold a plenary session on Monday to try to pass the budget.(Yonhap News)
