Ahn Cheol-soo: "Not a Reduction in COVID-19 Compensation... Specific Amount to Be Announced in Supplementary Budget"

Ahn Cheol-soo Clarifies Controversy Over COVID-19 Loss Compensation
"There Is a Misunderstanding I Want to Correct... Not a Reduction"
Tiered Payments, Support Funds Not Finalized... Self-Employed Protest

Ahn Cheol-soo, Chairman of the 20th Presidential Transition Committee, announced the welfare state reform plan of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration on the afternoon of the 29th at the transition office in Tongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

After the Presidential Transition Committee announced a differentiated compensation plan for COVID-19 losses, opposition has grown mainly among small business owners and self-employed individuals. In response, Transition Committee Chairman Ahn Cheol-soo stated, "We will disclose the specific (support fund) amount when submitting the supplementary budget," emphasizing that this is not a reduction of the pledge.

On the afternoon of the 29th, Chairman Ahn opened his remarks at the Transition Committee press briefing room in Tongui-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, before starting a briefing on "The Welfare State Reform Direction of the Yoon Seok-yeol Government," saying, "There was a misunderstanding in yesterday's (COVID-19 loss compensation) announcement, so I want to clarify it accurately."

Chairman Ahn explained, "The loss compensation for small business owners and self-employed people we mentioned yesterday was an estimate of the total losses over the past two years," adding, "If we did not intend to compensate retroactively, there would be no reason to estimate the total losses over two years."

He continued, "The current law specifies compensation only for a few restricted industries after July 7, 2021," emphasizing, "Our announcement yesterday was about extending the period retroactively to cover the past two years and expanding the scope beyond the industries specified in the current law to include sectors such as travel, performance, and exhibition industries."

He said, "We did not specify the exact (cash support) amount yesterday," and explained, "The reason we could not say how much would be reflected in the supplementary budget to help (small business owners) is that the new government’s first task is to submit the supplementary budget, where we will disclose it. We ask for your understanding."

Chairman Ahn announced the COVID-19 emergency response 100-day roadmap the previous day, revealing plans to provide damage support funds to up to 5.51 million places depending on the extent of COVID-19 damage. The Transition Committee explained that the estimated loss amount for 5.51 million small businesses and micro-enterprises from 2020 to last year, compared to before the COVID-19 outbreak, is approximately 54 trillion won.

The Transition Committee stated that support funds would be distributed differentially according to the size of the business and the extent of damage but did not disclose the specific support fund amounts. This led to backlash among small business owners and self-employed individuals, who viewed it as a de facto reduction of the pledge.

Kim Jong-min, former spokesperson for the National Self-Employed Emergency Committee, appeared on MBC Radio’s ‘Kim Jong-bae’s Focus’ that day and criticized, "I kept wanting to ask something, but nothing transparent was created," adding, "Media reports clearly mentioned the figure of 6 million won and specific numbers like 'raising the minimum amount from 500,000 won to 1 million won' were basically presented."

The Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business also commented, "The Transition Committee’s announcement did not include the total scale of support for small business owners, nor the 'retroactive application of loss compensation' that President-elect Yoon had pledged," evaluating that "a differentiated support fund plan was announced while small business owners had been expecting a lump-sum payment of over 6 million won."

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