By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The National Assembly Friday approved a budget bill for next year scaled at 256.1 trillion won ($272 billion).
The figure represents a cut of 1.2 trillion won from the government's proposed amount of 257.3 trillion won, up 7.9 percent from this year.
Funds for education and welfare were reduced by 165 billion won and 227 billion won, respectively.
Under the inter-party compromise, expenditures in social overhead capital increased by 360 billion won.
The main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) initially called for a cut of more than 5 trillion won including a larger reduction in inter-Korean cooperation funds.
But after its candidate Lee Myung-bak won the presidential election on Dec. 19, the party changed its stance and agreed to cut government spending by a smaller margin.
Instead, the GNP demanded that an additional budget be set for investment in developing new energy and supporting small- and medium-sized companies at the last minute during an ad hoc Assembly committee session, which are mostly included in Lee's campaign pledges.
Due to opposition from the pro-government United New Democratic Party, the funds were set similar to this year's level, parliamentary sources said.