SEOUL, KOREA - The government's gross tax revenue fell 10.9 trillion won short of the earlier expectations last year. The "not-as-yet-used" budget, money set aside for some purposes but not used, hit a record-high level of 18.1 trillion won from the previous year's 5.7 trillion won. Even though the government mobilized the massive revised supplementary budget to stimulate the economy, it ended up under-using resources at its own disposal.

 

 

The Ministry of Strategy & Finance said on February 10 that it has closed its books on gross revenue and expenditures for the fiscal year 2013 on the same day and the 2013 gross revenue came to 292.9 trillion won. Based on the figures, the surplus came to about 6.5 trillion won. Excluding the 7.2-billion-won carry-over budget, which was moved to the following year, the government posted an annual tax revenue deficit of about 800 billion won last year.

 

Congressman Choi Jae-Seong (Democratic Party), who is also a member of the National Assembly's Strategy & Finance Committee, commented on the announcement, "The fact that the government left so much money unused in an era of low economic growth is unacceptable." He added that the financial authorities must be held accountable for this.

 

To this, finance ministry officer Kim Sang-gyu responded, "Although too much not-used budget is not good for the economy, this is the result of not issuing government bonds and belt-tightening as much as possible."