Fourth Disaster Relief Fund Excludes Pharmacies (Professional Occupations) and Lottery Shops (Gambling Businesses) from Eligibility

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[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Eun-byeol] From as early as the end of this month, the 4th round of disaster relief funds will exclude professional occupations such as pharmacies and gambling-related businesses like lottery shops from the list of eligible recipients. Many real estate-related businesses will also be excluded, but real estate brokerage offices will be eligible for the support funds.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on the 7th, the 4th round of small business support funds (Buttress Fund Plus) will also exclude industries that are ineligible for small business policy loans. The concept of excluding certain industries from small business support funds was introduced during the 2nd round of disaster relief funds last year.

Industries with strong gambling characteristics such as tobacco, lottery, gambling, horse racing and cycle racing, adult games, as well as entertainment industries like colatecs, massage parlors, and kiss rooms, professional occupations such as lawyers, accountants, hospitals, and pharmacies, financial industries including insurance, pensions, credit investigation and debt collection agencies, and multi-level marketing door-to-door sales will be excluded from the support.

Real estate businesses are also excluded from receiving support funds due to their strong speculative nature. However, real estate managers or livelihood-type real estate brokerage and agency businesses that have operated at the same location for more than six months are eligible for the support funds.

The government has applied this concept when lending small business policy funds. The intention is to focus limited resources on small business owners who are in more difficult circumstances by excluding professional industries that are not recommended by the government or do not necessarily need assistance. This concept is also applied to small business support funds. However, exceptions are made for industries subject to business restrictions or gathering bans when applying the exclusion of support fund recipients. If a business suffers losses due to government quarantine measures, support will be provided regardless of whether the industry is gambling or entertainment-related. It is expected that entertainment businesses subject to business suspension orders will receive such exceptions. Unregistered businesses with significant tax evasion suspicions are also excluded from support as they are not considered small businesses.

Street vendors, newly included as recipients of the support fund (500,000 KRW) from this round, will receive funds on the premise that they are already registered as business operators with local governments or will register this time.

The government will apply a five-tier payment system starting with this 4th round of support funds. Businesses that have been continuously subject to gathering bans (extension) will receive 5 million KRW, those that transitioned from gathering ban to business restriction (easing) will receive 4 million KRW, and businesses under restrictions will receive 3 million KRW. General industries such as travel and air passenger transport, film production and distribution, intercity, city, and charter bus transportation, which have experienced an average sales decline of 20% or more (business crisis), will receive 2 million KRW, and industries with simple sales declines will receive 1 million KRW. For businesses under restrictions, support funds will only be provided to those with decreased sales this time.

The sales limit for general industry support fund recipients has been raised from 400 million KRW to 1 billion KRW, and businesses with five or more employees have been newly included as eligible recipients. The total scale of this small business support fund is 6.7 trillion KRW, with approximately 3.85 million recipients. If the supplementary budget bill passes in the National Assembly around mid-month, the support funds will be distributed from the end of this month.

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