On the same day President Lee Jae-myung urged the National Assembly to swiftly pass the 26.2 trillion won ($19.2 billion) supplementary budget on Monday, the People Power Party (PPP) denounced the bill as "an absurd supplementary budget ahead of local elections" and vowed rigorous scrutiny at each standing committee. The opposition specifically cited 20 line items — including high oil price relief payments and tourism industry loans — and pledged to push for cuts.
PPP members of the National Assembly's Special Committee on Budget and Accounts held a press conference before the president's supplementary budget address. "The moment we examined the detailed programs in the supplementary budget, we could not contain our outrage," they said. "High oil prices were merely a pretext. The real intent was a blatant election-driven fiscal mobilization targeting the June 3 local elections."
They criticized the plan as "ignoring direct support for small business owners struggling to make ends meet, and instead filling that space with 4.8252 trillion won in election-motivated cash handouts of 100,000 to 600,000 won, differentiated by income and region, with no causal connection to high oil price damage." They added, "The diagnosis was high oil prices, but the prescription is fake election medicine."
The PPP presented 20 programs as representative problem items in the government's supplementary budget: △High oil price relief payments differentiated by income and region (100,000–600,000 won) (4.8252 trillion won) △Renewable energy financial support (220.5 billion won) △Residential mini solar panels (25 billion won) and solar power distribution (62.4 billion won) △Petroleum stockpiling program (155.4 billion won) △"Startup for All" project (155 billion won) △Additional hiring of National Tax Service delinquent tax collection units (213.4 billion won) △Rural basic income pilot program (70.6 billion won) △SME fund-of-funds investment (170 billion won) △Artist livelihood stabilization fund (32 billion won) △K-Content fund (50 billion won) △Social solidarity economy youth work experience pilot (19.5 billion won) △Manufacturing tacit knowledge AI solution development (80 billion won) △ICT-converged smart factory expansion (87 billion won) △Industrial complex AI data center construction (14 billion won) △K-Brand national certification system (9.5 billion won) △Tourism industry loan support (280 billion won) △Youth employment-linked fund (150 billion won) △Innovative startup commercialization fund (150 billion won) △Operating expenses for four national science and technology institutes (63.9 billion won) △Exchange rate contingency reserve (300 billion won).
At the same time, the PPP said it would push for increases in seven programs, including expanding the fuel tax cut (from 15% to 30%) and providing 600,000 won per person in fuel subsidies for truck drivers, taxi drivers, and delivery workers.
Rep. Park Hyung-soo, the opposition's lead negotiator on the budget committee, told reporters after the press conference, "The biggest vote-buying scheme is distributing relief payments to 70% of the entire population." He added, "Both ruling and opposition parties shared the understanding that this supplementary budget would be a targeted response to high oil price damage, but when we opened the lid, it turned out to be payments to 70% of the population — clearly election-driven."
Rep. Choi Hyung-doo of the same party slammed the government and ruling party, saying, "They pre-arranged a money-scattering budget ahead of local elections and slapped the Middle East situation on as a justification. They should abandon the idea of using excuses to push through a supplementary budget before elections and think about the ordinary people who are suffering."
The PPP clashed sharply with the government and ruling party at each standing committee that began full-scale review, questioning the relevance of detailed supplementary budget programs to the Middle East situation.
At the full session of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee, Rep. Seo Beom-soo, the opposition's lead negotiator, said regarding the high oil price relief program, "The purpose of this supplementary budget is to help citizens affected by high oil prices, yet without any analysis of which sectors suffered and by how much, they uniformly categorized recipients by income and region." He pointed out that "support for those truly suffering from high oil prices is missing."
