Seoul City Extends Water Bill Discount for Small Businesses Until June... Additional Support of 33 Billion Won

Extension of 6-Month Water Bill Reduction for Small Businesses Initially Implemented Last Year Due to Prolonged COVID-19
Existing Beneficiaries Receive Automatic Reduction Without Additional Application... New Applications Accepted Until September 30

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 13th that it will extend the small business owners' water bill discount, originally scheduled to end last year, by six months until the June payment period this year. After completing the amendment procedure of the water ordinance for the additional discount implementation, it will be fully enforced from March.

Previously, Seoul provided a 50% discount on water usage for six months from July to December last year to small business owners struggling due to COVID-19. This measure aims to alleviate the economic burden of small business owners facing prolonged difficulties from COVID-19. Following the 28 billion KRW discount last year, an additional discount benefit of 33 billion KRW is expected to be given to 282,000 water service points used by small business owners.

From the January payment period to the June payment period this year, a 50% discount on water usage will be applied either ex officio or upon application for six months. Applications are currently being accepted at eight water business offices, and the deadline for applications is September 30.

To minimize inconvenience for citizens applying, small business owners who were selected as discount recipients last year will automatically receive the discount without additional procedures. However, if there have been changes such as store closure or change of water user, reapplication is required.

For general-use and bathhouse-use water service points with an average monthly usage of 300 tons (㎥) or less, the discount will be applied automatically without a separate application. Even if usage exceeds 300 tons per month, small business owners under Article 2 of the Small Business Act can receive the discount through a separate application. The 300-ton monthly usage standard is calculated based on the average usage over one year from the June 2020 payment period to the May 2021 payment period. Newly installed water service points will have their monthly usage converted and applied at the time of the first billing.

In particular, from this year, as the ‘public use’ category is integrated into ‘general use,’ small business owners who were unable to receive discounts because they were located in public-use buildings are expected to be included in the discount application targets. However, among the ‘former public use’ water service points integrated into ‘general use’ from this year, small business owners’ water service points will not be automatically discounted even if monthly usage is 300 tons (㎥) or less, so a separate application procedure is necessary.

If you apply only once during the application period, you will receive a 50% discount on water usage from January to June this year. For fees already paid during the discount period, the discount will be retroactively applied by deducting it from the bill after application. According to this measure, a general-use customer using 100 tons per month is expected to receive a discount of 345,000 KRW over six months (57,500 KRW per month), and a bathhouse-use customer using 1,000 tons is expected to receive 1.32 million KRW (220,000 KRW per month).

Gu Ami, head of the Waterworks Headquarters, said, “Through this extension of the water bill discount, we hope to ease the economic burden of small business owners struggling with the prolonged COVID-19 situation even a little,” and added, “We will actively promote guidance to ensure that all eligible recipients receive the discount benefits without omission.”

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