Gov't prepares extra budget worth 20 tln won over coronavirus: minister

All News 16:59 March 02, 2020

SEOUL, March 2 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's government is preparing an extra budget bill worth around 20 trillion won (US$16.7 billion) to fight against the new coronavirus, the interior minister said Monday.

The government plans to submit a supplementary budget bill to the National Assembly on Thursday as it struggles to contain the fast spread of COVID-19 amid a surge in infections.

When asked by an opposition lawmaker about the size of the proposed budget, Interior Minister Chin Young told a parliamentary interpellation session that it would be some "20 trillion won."

"In the process of a parliamentary review, in-depth discussions with the economy-related ministry appears to be needed," Chin said.

The finance ministry, headed by Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki, is the main government organization drawing up the extra budget bill.

Interior and Safety Minister Chin Young (L) speaks at a parliamentary interpellation session over the new coronavirus on March 2, 2020. (Yonhap)

Earlier in the day, ruling party and government officials said that the proposed budget will be larger than 6.2 trillion won, the amount of fiscal spending allocated for the government's 2015 extra budget to cope with the MERS outbreak.

In 2015, South Korea drew up an extra budget totaling 11.6 trillion won.

The 20 trillion won mentioned by Chin appears to be the total amount of the extra budget under preparation. The government's 2020 budget is already a record 512.5 trillion won.

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, meanwhile, said the government's current special immigration process for travelers coming from China is "working well," rejecting calls to ban all Chinese from entering South Korea.

Since Feb. 4, South Korea has imposed an entry ban on foreigners who visited or traveled through the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, in the past 14 days. It is also implementing stricter screening processes at an airport for all passengers coming from China.

Critics called for an expansion of the entry ban to all Chinese to better contain the risk of infections.

"Ensuring the safety of people is a top priority, but there are other factors to be considered," Kang said. "If we completely impose an entry ban on Chinese, Korean nationals might not be able to make necessary travel to China," she said.