S. Korea sacrifices defense upgrade projects to afford the second extra budget

[Source: MK DB]

South Korea victimized defense spending mostly for upgrade in next-generation arms to afford relief funding for 88 percent of the country¡¯s households, a private research institute found.

According to budget research agency Fiscal Reform Institute on Wednesday, 22 of 42 projects the National Assembly streamlined while evaluating this year¡¯s second 34.9 trillion won ($30.3 billion) supplementary budget scheme had been earmarked for Defense Acquisition Program Administration projects.

A total 568 billion won of defense-related project budget was slashed due to one-off cash handouts to families and businesses.

As much as 100 billion won was axed in in the budget for selective identification feature performance improvement and another 92 billion won set aside for next-generation F-35A.

Other projects aimed at enhancing national defense capacity such as by improving second performance of ground tactical C41 system were scaled back.

While slashing spending for 22 defense-related projects, the government had not outlined the plan in its supplementary budget scheme submitted to the legislative.

Lee Sang-min, a senior researcher at Fiscal Reform Institute, said that since the details were not listed in the extra budget plan, they are not on record of any committee reviews, making it difficult to learn the grounds for the cut.

If the cut was made without knowing of the legislative, the move is a serious challenge to the National Assembly budgetary review authority, he argued.

The finance ministry explained officials had discussed the cuts and increases to the budget with the National Assembly¡¯s budget subcommittee and consultative body.

[¨Ï Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]