Ministry of SMEs and Startups "3.6 Trillion Won Paid to 2.65 Million Small Business Owners in 15 Days"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] The government has supported approximately 2.65 million people with about 3.66 trillion KRW through the COVID-19 Small Business Support Fund within 15 days of launching the program.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 26th that it had paid 3.6574 trillion KRW to 2.65 million applicants who applied for the Small Business Support Fund from the 11th to the 25th of this month, a period of 15 days.

According to the Ministry, on the 25th alone, when 156,000 additional eligible recipients were added due to special year-end and New Year quarantine measures, 110,000 people applied. By 8 a.m. on the 26th, 147.8 billion KRW had been paid to them.

This means that 90.9% of the expanded first rapid payment target group of 2.915 million people were supported within 15 days since the first payment on the 11th.

Tomorrow (the 27th), an additional 34,863 small business owners who are subject to business suspension or operation restrictions and who only received 2 million KRW or 1 million KRW in the first rapid payment will be paid the difference amounting to 34.2 billion KRW.

Specifically, 3,330 people in the business suspension category (support fund 3 million KRW) who only received 1 million KRW, 5,870 people who only received 2 million KRW, and 21,663 people in the operation restriction category (support fund 2 million KRW) who only received 1 million KRW will receive 6.6 billion KRW, 5.9 billion KRW, and 21.7 billion KRW respectively.

This is because among the businesses submitted additionally by local governments and the Ministry of Education as subject to business suspension or operation restrictions, some had already received 1 million KRW as general businesses or 2 million KRW as operation-restricted businesses.

A Ministry of SMEs and Startups official stated, "We will send text messages between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. tomorrow to notify those eligible for the difference payment, and the difference will be deposited into the bank accounts where recipients have already received payments without any additional application procedures."

For small business owners who own multiple businesses and have differences in support amounts between their businesses, they must apply to change the eligible business. Considering this, the difference will be paid through confirmation payments after the 1st of next month.

Meanwhile, the Ministry plans to guide 260,000 people who have not yet applied by phone from tomorrow until the 5th of next month to ensure as many people as possible receive the support fund before the Lunar New Year holiday.

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