Party and Government: "COVID-19 National Support Fund to Assist Bottom 80% Income Bracket"

Yun Ho-jung, the floor leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, is delivering opening remarks at the '2021 2nd Supplementary Budget Party-Government Consultation' held at the National Assembly Members' Office Building on the 29th. Photo by Yun Dong-ju doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] The Democratic Party of Korea and the government agreed on the 29th to provide emergency disaster relief funds to the bottom 80% of income earners. Until now, the Democratic Party had advocated for nationwide payments for economic stimulus and fairness, but the government emphasized selective payments considering fiscal conditions.

On the morning of the same day, Park Wan-joo, chairman of the Policy Committee, stated at the 2nd supplementary budget briefing held at the National Assembly, "After in-depth discussions, we agreed to provide the COVID-19 coexistence national support fund to households in the bottom 80% of income, broadly encompassing the middle class." The remaining 20% above the 5th income quintile will receive cashback proportional to the increase in their credit card spending.

An additional amount will be provided to 3 million low-income individuals, including basic livelihood security recipients, near-poverty groups, and single-parent families. This three-part COVID-19 damage support package, including a 1 trillion won cashback budget, is expected to cost a total of 15 to 16 trillion won.

The scale of this supplementary budget is about 36 trillion won, which is the sum of the 33 trillion won supplementary budget and the 3 trillion won existing budget. Besides the COVID-19 package, the party and government decided to allocate about 4 to 5 trillion won for vaccine and quarantine reinforcement, 2 to 3 trillion won for employment and livelihood stabilization budgets, and 12 to 13 trillion won to revitalize the regional economy.

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