The Special Committee on Budget and Accounts has resumed deliberations on a supplementary budget, aiming at passing it by Tuesday ― the final day of the National Assembly’s current extraordinary session. With the main opposition Democratic United Party having retreated from its earlier demand for an increase in tax revenues, the budget bill is most likely to pass before the current session is closed.

The opposition party boycotted deliberations Wednesday, demanding an increase in tax revenues for fiscal soundness. It found fault with the administration’s proposal to finance most of the 17.3 trillion won in additional spending by issuing treasury bonds to the tune of 16.5 trillion won. It demanded that the government raise taxes for corporations and high-earning individuals.

Under pressure from those who put recovery before fiscal soundness, the opposition party accepted the ruling Saenuri Party’s commitment to a cosmetic cut in tax credits for large corporations investing in job-creating projects and agreed to resume deliberations on the budget. Even more ludicrous was that the proposed cut in tax credits was anything but new. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance had already reported a 1 percentage point cut to President Park Geun-hye in early April.

The Park administration has earmarked 12 trillion won in the extra budget bill to make up for an anticipated shortfall in tax revenues, for which it cannot be blamed. The responsibility lies with the previous administration, which overestimated this year’s growth and tax revenues, defying more conservative forecasts by economic think tanks.

By doing so, it reneged on its promise that the nation’s budget would be balanced by 2014. It passed the buck when it came to budgetary imbalances though it wanted to take credit for pulling the nation out of a global financial crisis without being seriously scathed.

Nonetheless, it is of no use for the Park administration to continue to complain about the previous administration’s deception. Fiscal deficits will get out of control if it increases welfare spending without making any tax increases. It may be politically correct to keep promising not to raise tax rates. But it would be fiscally incorrect for the Park administration to finance its welfare projects with debt.

It may be too early to demand that the Park administration present a timetable for balanced budgets. But it may well do so when it submits its first full-year budget request to the National Assembly in early October.