finance minister-supplementary budget

SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-Hyun said Friday that the volume of a supplementary budget now under discussion between the government and the ruling Grand National Party will turn out to be far in excess of expectations.

"The amount of the supplementary budget has yet to be determined, but (the
government) will respect the wish of the ruling party," said Yoon in a meeting
with a group of GNP lawmakers at the National Assembly.
"In particular, I'll ensure that the dignity of the ruling party's secretary
general will not be hurt," Yoon said, apparently referring to GNP Secretary
General Ahn Kyung-yul's recent demand that the extra budget be set between 30
trillion won to 40 trillion won (US$26.3 billion).
Ahn has called for the provision of an extraordinary supplementary budget to
steer the South Korean economy out of its worst crisis in decades, while some
critics within the GNP have insisted the extra budget be set far below 30
trillion won to help the government maintain its fiscal soundness.
South Korea's state budget for 2009 totals 217.5 trillion won.
But the prospects of the government and the ruling party moving to swiftly
formulate an extra budget remain clouded, as the main opposition Democratic Party
has vowed not to cooperate in all budget bills in protest at the GNP's attempt to
ram controversial media reform bills through the Assembly.
In an apparent reference to the bipartisan wrangling, Yoon called on the rival
parties to bury the hatchet to speed up parliamentary passage of heaps of bills
related to economic revival and improvement of public livelihood.
Yoon also noted that the resources of the extra budget will be mostly raised
through privatization of public corporations and mobilization of the central
bank's surplus funds.
ycm@yna.co.kr
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