긴급재난지원금 '2차 추경안' 본회의 통과…5월 중순 지급<br /><br />Rival parties passed the second supplementary budget of the year.<br />The government can now distribute disaster relief funds designed to cushion the economic blow caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.<br />Kim Mok-yeon has our top story.<br />South Korea's National Assembly has passed a 10 billion U.S. dollar extra budget bill, giving the greenlight to distribute emergency relief funds to the public in the aftermath of COVID-19.<br />The bill passed during Wednesday's late plenary session is the second of its kind after the first in March...and is up 3.8 million dollars from the government's original budget proposal.<br />Lawmakers and the government decided to expand the scope of who would be eligible...from the lower 70-percent income bracket to all citizens.<br />The extra 3.8 million dollars will be financed by issuing national bonds worth 2.8 million and the rest coming from an adjusted annual expenditure budget.<br />The government plans to push through with a third supplementary budget in June.<br />Now that the bill has been passed, the government plans to distribute the emergency relief money to some 21-point-7 million households nationwide by mid-May.<br />The amount will vary depending on the size of the household.<br />Four-person households will receive around 800 U.S. dollars while two-member households will get around 500 dollars.<br />A special bill that will allow the government to receive donations from high-income earners, who are willing to donate their share, has also been passed.<br />People who decide to donate will be able to receive tax credits of 15 percent of their expenses during their year-end tax adjustments.<br />Also during Wednesday's plenary session, around one hundred non-contentious bills were passed, including a package of bills aimed at strengthening punishments for digital sex crimes.<br />Kim Mok-yeon, Arirang News.<br />
