Some members of the National Assembly Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Committee protest the passage of a bill that mandates government purchase of all excess rice with taxpayers' money at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Wednesday. Korea Times file

By Lee Kyung-min

A highly contentious bill to mandate all excess rice be bought with taxpayers' money passed the parliamentary standing committee, late Wednesday, intensifying years-long debate over whether the government should protect farmers, despite clearly tanking demand for the once-popular staple crop, market watchers said Thursday.

The issue is expected to take a further politicized turn for the worse, as indicated by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) railroading the bill considered by many to be overprotective of rice farmers in order to deflect focus from a bout of legal risks posed by its corruption allegation-ridden party leader Lee Jae-myung.

President Yoon Suk-yeol said early Thursday that the bill "does not help farmers," in a clear stance against the opposition-led collective move to salvage Lee from tightening investigative scrutiny over illegal political campaign funding allegations.

"The mismatch between market supply and demand will widen, leading to a far greater volume of excess rice ending up discarded in the years to come," he said on his way to work. "The bill does not help farmers amid rapidly deteriorating fiscal soundness in the agricultural sector and taxpayers' money should be used for rural development."

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs plans to spend over 1 trillion won ($699 million) to buy 450,000 tons of surplus rice this year. The price of rice has hit a 45-year low of 40,725 won per 20 kilograms as of last month, a 24.9 percent year-on-year drop. Statistics Korea data showed Korea's per-capita annual rice consumption slumped to 56.9 kilograms last year, down by about 50 percent from 1991.

Opposition railroading

Among the 18 members of the National Assembly Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee, 10 from the DPK and an independent voted for the passage, drawing fierce protest from the remaining seven members from the ruling People Power Party (PPP).

Under the law, the government can buy rice if the excess volume is more than 3 percent of the annual estimate or if the price falls by over 5 percent from average figures. The bill will replace the word "can" with "must."

The bill is simply a stop-gap measure seeking votes from those in the agricultural industry, the PPP said.

"The bill essentially removes the government's discretion to determine the purchase volume," it said in a statement. "How can the opposition party justify mandating all excess rice be bought with taxpayers' money when the public is forced to tighten their spending on daily necessities including food?"

The DPK in response said the ruling party is shifting blame on the committee members, after weeks of stalling.

"We sought discussion with PPP members on the committee a number of times, but they were largely unresponsive. Calling for a discussion this late is a tactic to stall further," it said.