The People Power Party on Saturday criticized the government's plan to establish a new fund for investing in future growth engines, calling it "a declaration to spend taxpayer money however the government pleases."
Bae Jun-young, a PPP lawmaker and floor leader of the National Assembly's Finance, Economy and Planning Committee, said at a press conference at the Assembly that the government was "putting on a pretty face by claiming it is preparing for the future, when in reality this is a declaration to spend the people's hard-earned tax money however it sees fit."
Bae said the PPP "will fight with all its strength against what amounts to a backdoor fund, a shadow account, a counterfeit contingency reserve and a permanent supplementary budget."
The government announced Friday that it would pursue a future response fund, using additional tax revenue generated by the semiconductor boom to invest in future growth engines.
Bae characterized the fund as a second general account in the nature of an "illegal reservoir" — broader in scope than a contingency reserve, capable of accumulating over multiple years, and subject to changes in its operating plan.
He also took issue with the government's discretion in managing the fund. "The government has considerable latitude to revise the fund by up to 20 percent without prior approval from the National Assembly," Bae said. "One cannot help but question the government's true purpose in setting this up."
He added that surplus tax revenue should first go toward local finance and education grants, repayment of public funds, reduction of national debt and, if necessary, supplementary budgets. "If a substantial portion is siphoned off into this fund first, it will become impossible to follow the procedures set out under the National Finance Act," he said.
Bae also directed criticism at the way the Finance, Economy and Planning Committee is being run. He said the Democratic Party, which chairs the committee, "has broken every principle and convention by insisting on taking the chair of the budget review subcommittee, causing the standing committee to break down," and called it "groundwork to let the fund sail through easily and be run however they like."
moon@heraldcorp.com
