With “It is customary for the ruling party” and with the opposition “It is the majority party’s share”
It has been nearly three months since the opening and the so-called formation has not been possible
Sparks fly over livelihood bills such as abolition of gold investment tax
The ruling and opposition parties are clashing over who should chair the National Assembly Planning and Finance Committee’s Tax Subcommittee, causing a firestorm in the review of livelihood bills. The People Power Party has argued that “the ruling party should take it as a matter of convention,” while the Democratic Party of Korea has argued that “the majority party should take it,” delaying the review of the bills. The Tax Subcommittee is considered the first gateway to reviewing tax-related bills, such as the “K-Chips Act” (Special Tax Exceptions and Restrictions Act), which will be set to expire at the end of this year, and the abolition of the Financial Investment Income Tax (Finance Investment Tax), which will be implemented in January next year.
According to the National Assembly on the 16th, the ruling and opposition parties have not been able to form a subcommittee on the Finance and Strategy Committee since the opening of the 22nd National Assembly on May 30th. A People Power Party Finance and Strategy Committee official emphasized, “For the past 20 years, it has been customary for the ruling party to take the chairman of the Tax Subcommittee, but the opposition party is trying to break that,” and “They took the chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and the chairman of the Steering Committee, and now they want to monopolize the chairman of the Tax Subcommittee as well.” On the other hand, a Democratic Party Finance and Strategy Committee official said, “In order to operate the National Assembly responsibly, the majority party in the National Assembly should take the chairman of the Tax Subcommittee.”
Since the 18th National Assembly, most of the chairpersons of the Tax Subcommittee have been from the ruling party, citing the need for close coordination between the ruling and opposition parties. Only in the first half of the 20th National Assembly, when the Saenuri Party changed from the ruling party to the opposition party, was the chairperson of the Tax Subcommittee from the opposition party.
The Tax Subcommittee deliberates on tax-related bills proposed by the National Assembly along with the government’s tax law revision bill. While the ruling party is continuing the tax cut trend by pushing for the first inheritance tax reform in 25 years, the opposition party is criticizing it as a ‘tax cut for the rich.’ It seems that the tug-of-war between the ruling and opposition parties will continue over the chairman of the Tax Subcommittee, which holds the primary ‘key’ to passing the tax law.
As the formation of the tax subcommittee is delayed, the review of the K-Chips Act, which is considered a livelihood bill, has not even begun. If the ‘K-Chips Act’ is not extended by December 31 of this year, the tax deduction rate for large corporations on national strategic technologies such as semiconductors will be reduced from 15% to 8% starting next year. In the case of the gold investment tax, only about 150,000 people, or 1% of all stock investors (14.4 million people), pay taxes, but the government and the ruling party are concerned that if the ‘big players’ of the stock market leave, individual investors could suffer losses due to a stock market decline.
The ruling and opposition parties are negotiating with the goal of passing the so-called Goo Hara Act (civil law amendment) and the Nursing Act, as well as other livelihood bills, at the plenary session on the 28th. However, there are concerns that “the atmosphere of cooperation, which has been rare, may be strained due to the clashes between the ruling and opposition parties that occurred during the ‘broadcast control’ hearing and the ‘impeachment of prosecutors’ hearing, which may affect the processing of the bills.”
Reporter Choi Hye-ryeong [email protected]
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2024-08-17 12:22:01