Government ministries have collectively requested nearly 500 trillion won in total for next year’s budget and funds.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance said on Friday that budget and funding requests from all government agencies in 2020 were compiled and came to 498-point-seven trillion won, six-point-two percent higher than this year’s budget. 

When viewed in conjunction with a government plan to hand over some spending projects to local governments, the increase is in effect higher than seven percent. 

The combined budget requests were 345-point-seven trillion won, up five-point-one percent from this year’s budget, while funding requests rose eight-point-seven percent to 153 trillion won.

By specific fields, demand for welfare-related spending increased 12-point-nine percent, as the government plans to expand the size of allowances and pension funds for low-income households, jobseekers and the elderly. 

Budget requests for research and development jumped nine-point-one percent to 22-point-four trillion won. 

Requests for defense expenditure increased eight percent to 50-point-four percent while calls for environment-related funding rose five-point-four percent to seven-point-eight trillion won. 

The finance ministry plans to finalize these requests and submit them to the National Assembly by September third.