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| ▲ First Vice Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il (R) speaks with Kwon Dae-young, vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission, during the ruling Democratic Party's task force meeting on the Middle East crisis at the National Assembly in Seoul on March 16, 2026. (Yonhap) |
ruling party-extra budget
Ruling party, gov't agree to submit extra budget bill by end-March
By Yi Wonju
SEOUL, March 16 (Yonhap) -- The ruling Democratic Party (DP) and the government agreed to draw up and submit this year's first supplementary budget bill to the National Assembly by the end of this month to help ease livelihood concerns that stem from the ongoing war in the Middle East, officials said Monday.
The DP and the government also agreed to gradually release 22.46 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserves over the next three months amid soaring global oil prices triggered by the Middle East conflict.
The decision was made during a task force meeting attended by officials from the finance ministry, the Financial Services Commission and other agencies to discuss measures to stabilize energy supply and oil prices, Rep. Ahn Do-geol said in a press briefing.
The planned release comes in line with an agreement among the 32 member countries of the International Energy Agency to make 400 million barrels of oil from their reserves available to the market.
The contribution of each country in the collective endeavor was calculated in proportion to its share of the member countries' total oil consumption. South Korea's planned release accounts for 5.6 percent of the total 400 million barrels to be released.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources will also raise the current national resource crisis alert level from Level 1 to Level 2 in the country's four-tier national resource security warning system later this week and announce detailed plans to release the strategic oil reserves.
South Korea currently has oil reserves sufficient to last 208 days and liquefied natural gas reserves for nine days, according to Ahn.
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