Lee Jae-myung "The Government Should Now Proceed with Universal Disaster Relief Payments for All Citizens"

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Lee Jae-myung, the leading presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea and Governor of Gyeonggi Province, recently urged, regarding the confusion surrounding the disaster relief fund payments, "The government should now proceed with 100% nationwide payments."

Governor Lee has consistently advocated for nationwide payments instead of selective distribution of disaster relief funds whenever he had the opportunity. This is based on the belief that providing disaster relief funds to all citizens in the form of non-refundable local currency would indirectly support small business owners and self-employed individuals affected by COVID-19, thereby greatly contributing to revitalizing the local economy.

On the 11th, in a Facebook post titled "The government and the National Assembly should now proceed with 100% nationwide payments," he criticized the government's desk-bound administration, stating, "The feared situation has become reality. There is a flood of complaints from those excluded from the COVID-19 coexistence national support fund, and over 70,000 appeals have been filed in the five days since the first payment began."

He added, "This was anticipated from the moment selective payments were decided," and advised, "Although late, adjustments should be made now to universal payments for all citizens."

He further noted, "The Ministry of Economy and Finance confirmed that the payment target is only 83.7%, or 43,265,17 people, which is less than the initially announced 88%," adding, "About 2.2 million people (4.3%) originally eligible have been excluded."

Moreover, he criticized, "The 88% target for the national support fund was the final agreement between the National Assembly and the government, but due to ambiguous criteria, confusion, exclusion, discrimination, and feelings of alienation were inevitable. As a result, promises could not be kept, and conflicts are only growing."

He also pointed out, "Even if the payment target is increased to 90%, the same problems will recur, and it is impossible to reasonably explain why 90% is acceptable but 90.1% is not."

Therefore, Governor Lee advised, "It is important to raise community awareness for quarantine purposes, minimize unnecessary social conflicts, and maximize the effect of the national support fund by correcting the direction now to nationwide disaster relief fund payments."

In particular, he claimed, "The actual excess tax revenue, reflecting the base effect of tax support and supplementary budget foundations, is about 10.8 trillion won, and local government grants included in this year's second supplementary budget amount to about 6 trillion won," adding, "As of July, tax revenue increased by 55.1 trillion won compared to the same period last year, indicating sufficient fiscal capacity."

Governor Lee emphasized, "If the government and the National Assembly make a decision, it can be implemented swiftly. We must overcome the crisis not with discrimination but with fairness, not with exclusion but with integration, for the people who are suffering greatly due to COVID-19."

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