Government to Exempt Tolls During Lunar New Year Holiday and Reduce Utility Bills for the Vulnerable

Sung Il-jong, head of the People Power Party (PPP) policy committee, gives his greetings in a meeting of government, PPP, and private sector representatives to discuss Lunar New Year measures to stabilize the people’s livelihoods at the National Assembly on January 3. From left is lawmaker Yoo Sung-kull, the ruling PPP secretary in the parliamentary Strategy and Finance Committee; Sung Il-jong, chair of the PPP policy committee; and Lee Je-hoon, CEO of Homeplus. Yonhap News

The government decided to waive expressway tolls during the Lunar New Year holiday and to reduce the electricity and gas bills for the vulnerable. The government will announce Seollal (Lunar New Year) holiday measures to stabilize people’s livelihoods including these decisions on January 4.

Sung Il-jong, head of the People Power Party (PPP) policy committee met with reporters after a meeting of government, PPP, and private sector representatives to discuss measures to secure the people’s livelihoods during the Lunar New Year holiday at the National Assembly on January 3. He said, “We expect a lot of people to travel for the first time in a long time during this Lunar New Year holiday (due to eased disease control measures),” and added, “We asked the government to waive expressway tolls during the Lunar New Year and to open parking lots for free so that the people could comfortably celebrate the holiday.” Sung, First Vice Minister of Economy and Finance Bang Ki-sun, and Lee Je-hun, CEO of Homeplus, were among the participants in the meeting Tuesday.

Sung explained that he asked the government to supply goods in high demand during the holiday at an unprecedentedly large scale and to pay special attention to the supply of eggs because of the spread of avian flu. Sung also explained that he asked the government to let citizens use an unusually large amount of discount coupons for agricultural, meat and marine products and said, “We expect more discount benefits than ever before.” According to Sung, a major supermarket chain said it would prepare significant discounts of 30-50% so that the people could comfortably enjoy the Lunar New Year holiday. He said, “We also asked the government to ease city center restrictions on cargo trucks to allow freight trucks access for a smooth supply of items in high demand.”

As for the electricity and gas bill hikes scheduled early this year, Sung said, “We asked the government to announce the Lunar New Year measures including real measures to ease the burden of fuel expenses, such as energy vouchers and welfare discounts, for nearly 1.2 million households classified as vulnerable.” He further said that the ruling People Power Party asked the government to enhance benefits for people in the Basic Livelihood Security Program and to increase the emergency welfare livelihood support fund to help them enjoy the holiday. The PPP policy chief also said, “We asked the government to lower the unit price of grains in the government’s possession for the low-income class and allow them to use vouchers for agricultural products,” and asked for special attention on worksites to prevent unpaid wages.

In an opening comment, Vice Minister Bang Ki-sun announced that the government would continue to implement policies with top priority on stabilizing prices and the people’s livelihoods next year just as it had this year, and that the ministries would jointly announce Lunar New Year measures to secure the people’s livelihoods according to the request of the PPP on Wednesday (Jan. 4). The vice minister of economy and finance said, “We will focus on stabilizing prices centered on major items in high demand to ease the grocery bills for ordinary citizens, while significantly reducing winter energy costs for the vulnerable and putting our utmost into reducing the burden of loan repayments for the financially vulnerable.”