Jeonbuk Province Grants 3-Month Payment Deferral for Urban Gas Fees to Vulnerable Groups

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Jeonbuk Province, which is implementing a suspension of city gas supply cutoff system for small business owners facing difficulties due to COVID-19, has decided to defer city gas bill payments for three months.

On the 17th, Jeonbuk Province announced that, following the guidelines of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, it will implement a three-month deferral system for city gas bill payments starting this month in cooperation with Korea Gas Corporation and city gas providers.

The deferral of city gas bill payments applies to small business owners using city gas and households eligible for residential rate reductions (socially vulnerable groups).

For those eligible, the payment deadline for three months’ worth of city gas bills starting from this month’s billing (if the April bill has already been paid, then the bills from May to July) will be extended by three months, and no late fees will be charged during the extension period.

Additionally, for bills with extended payment deadlines, equal installment payments will be allowed from the due date until the end of the year (December) to prevent a sudden financial burden.

Applications for payment deferral can be made without visiting the city gas provider by small business owners nationwide and residential rate reduction households using city gas through the respective city gas company call centers and websites (see Reference 2) until the 15th of next month.

Residential rate reduction households do not need to submit additional documents, but small business owners must prepare the customer number and business registration number listed on the city gas bill of their local city gas provider.

City gas providers will verify the small business owner status and notify applicants whose eligibility is unclear, requesting submission of a small business confirmation certificate issued by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

For businesses requested to submit the confirmation certificate, consumers who need to newly obtain the certificate will be allowed to submit it within one month after the payment deferral application date to ease the burden of certificate issuance.

A Jeonbuk Province official stated, “This measure allows city gas bills to be deferred for three months without late fees (2%) and enables installment payments until the end of the year, which will help alleviate the city gas bill burden for small business owners and vulnerable groups struggling due to COVID-19.”

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