'Budget Exhaustion' Busan City to Suspend Dongbaekjeon Local Currency Cashback from the 17th

[Image source = Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Eun-young] The cashback for 'Dongbaekjeon,' the local currency introduced by Busan City to support local small business owners and prevent the outflow of regional funds, will be suspended from the 17th until the end of the year.

On the 15th, Busan City announced that the cashback payment, which returns a certain amount when using Dongbaekjeon, will be temporarily suspended from 0:00 on the 17th until the end of the year.

Even before the 17th, if the budget is exhausted early, the cashback payment will be stopped.

Previously accumulated cashback can still be used as before. Accumulated cashback and granted allowances are non-refundable.

From the 17th, the balance of recharge funds that cannot enjoy cashback benefits can be refunded through the Dongbaekjeon app or the Dongbaekjeon customer center.

Cashback is expected to resume from early next year when the budget is reallocated.

On December 31 last year, Busan City launched 'Dongbaekjeon,' a local currency. The purpose was to stimulate local consumption and provide benefits to small and medium merchants to revitalize the local economy. Dongbaekjeon achieved its issuance target of 300 billion won within about four months of launch and has received great response with a cumulative issuance amount of 1.2 trillion won and 870,000 cumulative subscribers to date.

Busan City initially decided to encourage the use of Dongbaekjeon by adding its own budget to the 4% government support and returning up to 10% of the usage amount as cashback.

Until January, consumers were returned 10% of the usage amount within a monthly payment limit of 1 million won, and from February, the cashback rate was planned to be lowered to 6%, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided to return 10% until June.

However, as Dongbaekjeon was implemented focusing solely on providing incentives, the budget burden became unsustainable, leading to the temporary suspension measure.

Yoon Eun-jae, Busan City's Director of Livelihood and Labor Policy, said, "Next year, we will prepare various functions and benefits through securing new budgets and reselecting operators."

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