The draft budget is only 2.8% bigger compared to the 2023 budget of 638.7 trillion won, a South Korean news agency noted. By contrast, the budget for 2023 was 5.1% bigger than in 2022.
"The tax revenue for both the current year and 2024 continues to present challenges, as the nation's fiscal landscape grapples with an enlarging deficit and an accumulated national debt exceeding 1,000 trillion won," Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho was quoted as saying.
The biggest cut in spending will affect the research and development (R&D) projects, which had been allocated 10.9% annually on average in recent years but failed to bring about enough effective projects and allowed fund "leakages," Choo said. In the 2024 budget the ministry proposed cutting the R&D spending by 16.6% to 25.9 trillion won.
The draft budget also has 130 billion won earmarked for reconstruction projects in Ukraine, the news agency reported.
The budget proposal is due to be submitted to the parliament on Friday for approval, according to the media.