Fiscal experts criticized the government’s plan to increase national debt by 106 trillion won next year while placing 104.4 trillion won in idle reserves in a new Future Response Fund. The reserves would account for most of the fund’s 162.3 trillion won total after project costs and reductions in new government bond issuance are excluded. Kim Woo-chul, a professor of taxation at the University of Seoul and head of the Korean Association of Public Finance, said the structure effectively borrows money while holding cash, even though the managed fiscal balance deficit would be only 3.1 trillion won. Experts said strong tax revenue should instead support debt repayment and fiscal surpluses, with Hwang Sang-hyun proposing that at least 50% of additional tax revenue be allocated by law to reducing new deficit bond issuance and repaying existing bonds. Participants also warned that national-debt interest costs will reach 42.8 trillion won next year, above the 39.5 trillion won research and development budget, and 53.3 trillion won by 2030. Kim said a one-percentage-point increase in the average interest rate on national debt could lift 2030 interest costs to about 70 trillion won. Experts questioned whether the fund’s revenue sources would persist, saying new funding would effectively disappear from 2029 under the extra-tax-revenue formula. Kim proposed reducing total spending growth to 7.8% next year from the government’s 12.8% proposal and holding it at 5.4% in 2028, potentially producing about 53 trillion won in surpluses over two years for debt repayment. Separately, the government submitted a National Finance Act amendment to the National Assembly on the 3rd that would allow excess tax revenue to flow into the fund rather than being used to repay government bonds.