Small business owners can save up to 1.5 million in interest on loans

Power of the people Prime Minister Han Deok-soo delivers a greeting at the 16th high-level party-political council meeting at the National Assembly on Thursday morning. Yonhap News Agency

The ruling People's Power Party (PPP), the government, and the presidential office on January 14 decided to reduce the interest on loans borrowed by 400,000 small business owners and self-employed people from nonbank financial institutions by up to 1.5 million won per person. The government will also increase the level of government discount support for major products for the Lunar New Year holiday and increase the amount of Onnuri gift certificates used at traditional markets to be issued by 1 trillion won from the current amount.

The government and the ruling party held a high-level party-government meeting at the National Assembly to decide and announce measures to support the people’s livelihood ahead of the Lunar New Year.

They decided to ease the interest burden on small business owners and self-employed people who borrowed from nonbank financial institutions from the end of March. The number of eligible people is about 400,000 and the decreasing interest is up to 1.5 million won per person.

In addition, the government will provide 39 trillion won, the largest amount ever, for holiday liquidity support for small and medium-sized businesses. The government and the ruling party also plan to suspend the increase in electricity bills for the vulnerable once again. During the meeting, the PPP called for a delay in the increase, saying, "The timing of the electricity rate hike for 3.65 million vulnerable households, which was suspended last year, is coming back," and the government decided to accept it, said Park Jung-ha, PPP’s senior spokesperson in a briefing.

Park added, "We will make all-out efforts to stabilize prices to ease the gap between classes and ensure that everyone feels warmth during the Lunar New Year holiday. We also decided to manage the average price of the highly demanded products for the holiday below last year's level by increasing the government's discount support rate by 10 percentage points from 20 percent to 30 percent." The 16 major products include cabbages, radishes, apples, pears, pork, and mackerel.

The government and the ruling party plan to exempt highway toll fees for vehicles going home for the upcoming holiday which lasts from February 9 to 12. During the period, the tickets for express trains KTX and SRT will be discounted by up to 30 percent.

They will raise the monthly purchase limit of Onnuri gift certificates for traditional markets by 500,000 won and expand the size of issuance from 4 trillion won to 5 trillion won. In the case of paper gift certificates, the amount will be increased from 1 million won to 1.5 million won, which is a measure to revitalize traditional markets and local businesses.

At the meeting, Han Dong-hoon, chairman of the PPP’s emergency committee, asked the government to ease the burden of tuition fees for university students. But, reportedly, there was no discussion on the veto of the special act on the Itaewon crowd crush tragedy or the re-voting of the special prosecution act on First Lady Kim Keon-hee.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.