Gwangju City Grants 3-Month Exemption on City Gas Late Fees for Small Business Owners and Others

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 3rd that Marine Energy Co., Ltd. will waive late fees on city gas bills for three months to support citizens and small business owners struggling due to COVID-19.

This measure was prepared as an extension of the city’s second livelihood stabilization plan, "Protecting the Local Economy from COVID-19," announced on the 19th of last month, which focused on freezing six major public utility fees. It was decided after continuous consultations with Marine Energy Co., Ltd. to provide additional crisis recovery measures for citizens.

To this end, Marine Energy Co., Ltd. announced the "Joint Labor-Management Declaration to Overcome the COVID-19 Crisis" on the 31st of last month and will implement a plan starting this month to waive the 2% late fee for three months (April to June) for small business owners and socially vulnerable groups who are unable to pay their city gas usage fees.

The number of city gas late fee cases during the same period last year was about 6,800, amounting to approximately 34 million KRW, and this year, due to COVID-19, an unexpectedly higher number of late fees is anticipated.

The support target for this measure includes a total of about 80,000 households: 18,000 small business households and 62,000 socially vulnerable households (including veterans, disabled persons, recipients of public assistance, low-income families, and families with multiple children) will benefit.

Those who wish to receive support for city gas late fee waivers can apply by calling the Marine Energy Co., Ltd. Customer Service Center starting from the 6th.

Oh Dong-gyo, Director of the Energy Industry Division of the city, said, "We hope that this waiver of city gas late fees will be a small help for citizens struggling due to COVID-19 to overcome these difficulties."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.