The main political parties agreed Wednesday on the details of a reform bill lowering pension allowances to retired public officials, a day before lawmakers were expected to put the draft law to a final vote in the legislature.
But the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy’s protest against a government enforcement decree authorizing investigations into last year’s Sewol ferry disaster kept the parties deadlocked into the evening on an array of negotiations on the bills to be put to a vote at this month’s last plenary session.
The NPAD earlier Wednesday had repeated threats to withhold the amended Public Officials Pension Act from the plenary session the next day unless the governing Saenuri Party agreed to its demand that Welfare Minister Moon Hyun-pyo resign or be excluded from future pension debates.
The main opposition holds the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, enabling it to stall bills from going to a plenary vote.
The NPAD further demanded that the government revise an enforcement decree creating an investigation into the Sewol ferry disaster.
An enforcement decree functions as de facto addenda to existing laws. They are written by the government as part of the final steps of the legislative process.
The NPAD’s protest focused on the decree for the special Sewol bill, a law creating a government-sponsored probe into the Sewol ferry disaster of April last year when a ferry sinking in the West Sea left 304 dead.
Victims’ families had voiced concern that the Park Geun-hye administration would likely meddle in the investigations by placing officials on the probe team’s top executive board, in accordance with the special Sewol bill’s enforcement decree.
The NPAD also earlier demanded that the Saenuri Party do “something to guarantee” Moon’s exclusion from future pension debates in the parliament. The NPAD charges Moon with disrupting the assembly’s pension debates by making “factually erroneous” comments earlier this month.
“There’s no telling what Moon will say to disrupt talks again,” NPAD floor leader Rep. Lee Jong-kul said on a local radio show on Wednesday. “The governing party must guarantee that the welfare minister will not be able to make provocative public statements in the future.”
The welfare minister had likened NPAD proposals on raising the national pension’s income replacement rate to 50 percent, from the current 40, to “pirating,” earlier this month.
The income replacement rate is a coefficient multiplied by lifetime average income levels for pensioners. The higher the rate, the higher the pension for beneficiaries.
Moon had reasoned that raising the rate of the national pension, without raising taxes, would inevitably lead to tax hikes for future generations.
The NPAD disagreed with Moon’s statements, saying the National Pension Service, the public institution managing the national pension, would be able to give increased allowances to pensioners with only a minimal tax hike on today’s taxpayers.
The welfare minister, a former pension expert at a public think tank, declined to retract his comments Wednesday.
“I have not made a factual error. I will stand by my words,” Moon said, refusing to apologize.
The Saenuri Party, meanwhile, repeated its disagreements on muting the welfare minister. But Saenuri floor leader Rep. Yoo Seong-min offered a compromise deal to the NPAD, in which Moon would “express regret.”
Negotiations continued throughout the day.
The reforms to the civil service are aimed at reducing the public debt. Aggregate debt levels of public companies amount to about 520.5 trillion won ($470 billion) while total government debt, the sum of central and local government debts, stands at about 570 trillion won, the latest Finance Ministry tallies showed.
The parties have made agreements on other outstanding issues.
The NPAD earlier Wednesday agreed to retrieve its stranglehold on some 50 draft bills it had withheld from plenary voting. They include a bill legalizing anti-smoking images on cigarette packs, a bill legalizing crowdfunding and a bill aiming to boost investment for private equity funds.
By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)
But the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy’s protest against a government enforcement decree authorizing investigations into last year’s Sewol ferry disaster kept the parties deadlocked into the evening on an array of negotiations on the bills to be put to a vote at this month’s last plenary session.
The NPAD earlier Wednesday had repeated threats to withhold the amended Public Officials Pension Act from the plenary session the next day unless the governing Saenuri Party agreed to its demand that Welfare Minister Moon Hyun-pyo resign or be excluded from future pension debates.
The main opposition holds the chairmanship of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, enabling it to stall bills from going to a plenary vote.
The NPAD further demanded that the government revise an enforcement decree creating an investigation into the Sewol ferry disaster.
An enforcement decree functions as de facto addenda to existing laws. They are written by the government as part of the final steps of the legislative process.
The NPAD’s protest focused on the decree for the special Sewol bill, a law creating a government-sponsored probe into the Sewol ferry disaster of April last year when a ferry sinking in the West Sea left 304 dead.
Victims’ families had voiced concern that the Park Geun-hye administration would likely meddle in the investigations by placing officials on the probe team’s top executive board, in accordance with the special Sewol bill’s enforcement decree.
The NPAD also earlier demanded that the Saenuri Party do “something to guarantee” Moon’s exclusion from future pension debates in the parliament. The NPAD charges Moon with disrupting the assembly’s pension debates by making “factually erroneous” comments earlier this month.
“There’s no telling what Moon will say to disrupt talks again,” NPAD floor leader Rep. Lee Jong-kul said on a local radio show on Wednesday. “The governing party must guarantee that the welfare minister will not be able to make provocative public statements in the future.”
The welfare minister had likened NPAD proposals on raising the national pension’s income replacement rate to 50 percent, from the current 40, to “pirating,” earlier this month.
The income replacement rate is a coefficient multiplied by lifetime average income levels for pensioners. The higher the rate, the higher the pension for beneficiaries.
Moon had reasoned that raising the rate of the national pension, without raising taxes, would inevitably lead to tax hikes for future generations.
The NPAD disagreed with Moon’s statements, saying the National Pension Service, the public institution managing the national pension, would be able to give increased allowances to pensioners with only a minimal tax hike on today’s taxpayers.
The welfare minister, a former pension expert at a public think tank, declined to retract his comments Wednesday.
“I have not made a factual error. I will stand by my words,” Moon said, refusing to apologize.
The Saenuri Party, meanwhile, repeated its disagreements on muting the welfare minister. But Saenuri floor leader Rep. Yoo Seong-min offered a compromise deal to the NPAD, in which Moon would “express regret.”
Negotiations continued throughout the day.
The reforms to the civil service are aimed at reducing the public debt. Aggregate debt levels of public companies amount to about 520.5 trillion won ($470 billion) while total government debt, the sum of central and local government debts, stands at about 570 trillion won, the latest Finance Ministry tallies showed.
The parties have made agreements on other outstanding issues.
The NPAD earlier Wednesday agreed to retrieve its stranglehold on some 50 draft bills it had withheld from plenary voting. They include a bill legalizing anti-smoking images on cigarette packs, a bill legalizing crowdfunding and a bill aiming to boost investment for private equity funds.
By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)
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Articles by Korea Herald