The National Assembly will continue toiling over next year’s budget this week with wrangling over corporate and tobacco taxes expected to take center stage, officials said Sunday.

The governing Saenuri Party supports increased tobacco taxes and opposes higher corporate levies. The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy advocates higher corporate rates and opposes increased tobacco taxes. The two parties have not budged from their positions for months.

But lawmakers are likely to iron out their differences within the coming weeks, analysts said, as they will be under pressure to meet a new deadline for the National Assembly’s budget review.

The Constitution obligates lawmakers to complete the budget review by Dec. 2. 

Legislators have consistently failed to meet this deadline. In last year’s review, lawmakers passed the 2014 budget minutes into the New Year, leaving the nation without an official spending plan for the first few hours of 2014.

In an effort to put an end to such tardiness, lawmakers in 2012 approved a bill that set Nov. 30 as a preliminary due date for sending the budget to a plenary session, so that a final vote could be conducted by Dec. 2.

This year will be the first time the Nov. 30 deadline is put to the test.

National Assembly Speaker Rep. Chung Ui-hwa is said to be “determined” to meet this deadline, according to a senior parliamentary official who asked not to be named.

“Chung will strongly work to meet the (Nov. 30) deadline,” said the official, “because he’s aware that history will remember him as the first Assembly speaker to test this date.”

The Saenuri Party will also be keen on meeting the deadline, analysts said, as it is the country’s governing party.

Experts said that even the opposition, the party that traditionally prolongs the review process, would likely try to meet the Nov. 30 deadline as well, despite its many grievances.

“The NPAD is not in a position to put up a unified front against the governing party,” said Choi Young-jin, a professor of Korean politics at Chung-Ang University in Seoul.

The main opposition party is set to hold a party convention early next year to pick its new chair. Competing factions within the NPAD led by senior lawmakers expected to run such as Reps. Park Jie-won and Chung Sye-kyun have already begun preparations.

“The parties may not meet the Dec. 2 deadline, but I expect this year’s review to be much less tumultuous than the past,” Choi said.

Chung Jin-min, professor of politics at Myongji University in Seoul, added credit to Choi’s assertions.

“The opposition will be facing political pressure to live up to the (Nov. 30) deadline, in the spirit of the so-called National Assembly advancement Act.”

The newly set Nov. 30-deadline was part of a series of amendments to parliamentary laws, popularly known as the National Assembly Advancement Act. Other amendments enacted alongside the Nov. 30-deadline include clauses that gave more powers to minority parties, such as filibusters.

The NPAD holds the second-most seats in the Assembly. The Saenuri Party holds a majority with 158 seats out of 300.

Opposing the Nov. 30 due date would put the NPAD in a politically awkward position, Chung said, as it would make the party look like it is cherry-picking legislations that fit its interests while neglecting others that disadvantage the party.

By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)