Incheon e-eum Card 10% Cashback Benefit Continues Next Year

1.38 Million Subscribers, 2.862 Trillion KRW Payment This Year
Secured 195 Billion KRW Cashback Budget for Next Year Including 94 Billion KRW Government Funding

Incheon e-eum Card

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Incheon City will continue to provide benefits of up to 10% cashback on payments made with the local currency card 'Incheon e-eum' next year.

The city has set this policy to boost sales for small business owners and stimulate local consumption, anticipating that the difficult economic situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will persist into next year.

Accordingly, the e-eum card cashback is 10% for monthly payments up to 500,000 KRW and 1% for payments between 500,000 and 1,000,000 KRW. The city has temporarily expanded the e-eum card cashback benefit from a maximum of 4% to up to 10% since March this year.

The number of Incheon e-eum card subscribers increased from 930,000 at the beginning of this year to 1.38 million as of the 20th of this month, and the total payment amount this year reached 2.862 trillion KRW, the highest among local currency payment amounts nationwide.

From January to the end of October this year, the local currency payment amount per capita was 126,000 KRW in Gyeonggi Province and 679,000 KRW in Incheon City, with Incheon e-eum being 5.4 times that of Gyeonggi Province.

Incheon City invested a total of 213.6 billion KRW in finances through three supplementary budgets this year to provide Incheon e-eum cashback. Next year, it secured a total cashback budget of 195 billion KRW, including 94 billion KRW in national funds. Notably, national fund support increased significantly by 3.6 times over two years, from 26 billion KRW in 2019, 66.2 billion KRW this year, to 94 billion KRW next year.

The top industries where Incheon e-eum is used include general rest restaurants (25.8%), distribution industries such as supermarkets and convenience stores (19.02%), and beverage and food industries such as butcher shops and bakeries (8.85%), which are major sectors for small business owners.

An official from Incheon City stated, "In the future, when the COVID-19 situation calms down and the local economy recovers, we plan to maximize the issuance scale of the Incheon e-eum card while reviewing the cashback payment limits and rates."

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