As the government aims for the passage of a fourth supplementary budget bill by the end of this week, the ruling Democratic Party and main opposition People Power Party have reportedly failed to see eye to eye on some issues. 

According to party officials, DP Floor Leader Kim Tae-nyeon, paid a visit to his PPP counterpart Joo Ho-young on Monday and sought the conservative party’s cooperation to pass the extra budget bill during a plenary parliamentary session on Friday and distribute additional relief payouts ahead of the Chuseok holiday beginning late this month. 

Joo apparently told him that the passage of the bill will be difficult unless the ruling bloc withdraws its plan to use part of the extra budget to provide 20-thousand won in one-off telecommunication fee discounts to every citizen aged 13 or higher to ease the financial impact of the protracted pandemic. 

This leaves the rival parties undecided on when to pass the seven-point-eight trillion won budget plan mainly aimed at helping the hardest-hit segments of the population, including small merchants and self-employed people. 

The floor leaders were also known to have failed to reach an agreement on other major pending issues, including the creation of an independent investigative unit against corruption by high-ranking officials.