The National Assembly approved next year’s government budget Tuesday, ending weeks of partisan bickering in time for a constitutional deadline that has rarely been followed.

The 2015 budget is approximately 375.4 trillion won ($340 billion), an increase of about 5.7 percent from last year. Lawmakers cut about 600 billion won from the government’s original draft budget submitted in September.

Taxes on cigarettes will rise by 2,000 won per pack, while funds related to a free child care program called the Nuri Curriculum will be allocated an additional 540 billion won. Funds related to President Park Geun-hye’s “creative economy” initiative will stay largely similar to the plans written in the original draft.

The Constitution mandates the legislature to approve the subsequent year’s budget by Dec. 2, a month before the start of the fiscal year. But wrangling over the spending plan has effectively annulled the due date on most occasions, with the last timely approval occurring in 2002.

The two main parties, however, were determined to pass the spending plan in time this year, the first since the introduction of a law to encourage parliamentary cooperation over the budget.

Under National Assembly Act amendments made two years ago, the budget bill is automatically forwarded to a plenary session on Nov. 30. The amendment aimed to compel lawmakers to draw up a compromise budget before the Constitution’s December deadline.

The usual political tugs of war abounded this year as well, but senior government officials were under pressure to find some middle ground before the Nov. 30-regulation kicked in. If the new law was ignored in its first year, it would set the wrong historical precedent, lawmakers said.

Even the opposition, which traditionally puts up the most vociferous objections to the government budget, appeared cooperative.

“I am aware the budget is imperfect, but we needed to balance coming up with the right spending plan, and meeting the December budget deadline,” said Rep. Woo Yoon-keun, floor leader of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, Monday.

South Korea’s lawmaking body has been notorious for its strife, which often occurred when the majority party used its greater numbers to pass controversial legislation.

Budget disagreements have been especially disharmonious. Last year, lawmakers passed this year’s budget early on Jan. 1, leaving the nation budget-less for the first few minutes of 2014, due to divergent partisan interests.

The new parliamentary law that came into force this year, popularly called the National Assembly Advancement Act, attempted to create a “culture of handshaking,” according to Myongji University professor of politics Chung Jin-min.

But last-minute disputes over income and tobacco tax reforms threatened to derail the budget’s timely approval.

The governing Saenuri Party supported the reforms which propose decreasing levies on dividends to stock owners, and conditionally increasing taxes on corporate savings. NPAD lawmakers expressed doubts over the proposals, as they would likely benefit only the rich.

Parties had agreed on raising tobacco taxes, but opposition lawmakers sitting on the Assembly’s Security and Public Administration Committee protested the 2,000 won-per cigarette pack hike to the 11th hour.

Final debates over the budget and related bills continued into the last hours of Tuesday. In the end, 225 voted in favor of the compromise budget bill, with 28 opposing.

Most of the amendments to budget-related tax bills also passed, except those to inheritance tax laws. The unexpected result surprised even the lawmakers who voted, as floor leaders of the governing and main opposition parties were believed to have reached accommodations on major disagreements earlier Tuesday. 

Other bills including the Korea-Australia free trade pact were also passed.

By Jeong Hunny  (hj257@heraldcorp.com)