Gyeongbuk Province Decides to 'Freeze' Local City Gas Supply Costs... Provincial Price Countermeasures Committee Aims to Ease Burden on Low-Income Residents

Gyeongbuk Provincial Government Office.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Gwiyeol] Gyeongbuk Province held a ‘Price Countermeasure Committee’ composed of certified public accountants, consumer groups, and others on the 20th to decide the urban gas supply cost to be applied from July this year.

The urban gas consumer fee is the sum of the wholesale fee approved by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy and the supply cost of the local urban gas company approved by the governor, and the fee is adjusted every year after a research service on the supply cost.

The urban gas consumer fee is determined by adding the supply cost of the urban gas company to the wholesale fee of Korea Gas Corporation.

The supply costs for the four regions in the province, finally decided this year, were frozen at last year’s level for residential supply costs to minimize the burden on low-income households, considering the recent steep rise in prices.

Accordingly, urban gas-using households in the province will be charged based on the amount combining the government’s wholesale fee and the supply cost decided from July, according to their gas usage.

According to the Statistics Korea announcement, Gyeongbuk’s consumer price index in June rose 7.2% compared to the same month last year, marking the largest increase in about 24 years since the foreign exchange crisis.

In response, Gyeongbuk Province has formed an emergency economic countermeasure headquarters led by the Deputy Governor for Economic Affairs from July to promote price stability management and livelihood economic recovery measures.

For price stabilization, the province has entered an emergency response system by cooperating with cities and counties to maintain the freeze on local public utility fees and monitoring weekly price trends.

Additionally, responsibility management is being strengthened for local price management items by sector, and emergency support measures for vulnerable groups in the economic crisis are also being promoted.

Amid the continuous high price surge, guidance and crackdowns are being conducted on counterfeit product sales that disrupt sound commercial order and violations of origin labeling for agricultural, livestock, and fishery products.

Lee Dal-hee, Deputy Governor for Economic Affairs of the province, emphasized, “Considering the difficult livelihood economic situation due to high prices, the province has taken extraordinary measures to freeze urban gas fees following bus and taxi fares. Cities and counties are also actively participating in freezing local public utility fees such as water and sewage charges and garbage bag prices. We will strongly promote price stabilization management measures until prices are maintained at a stable level.”

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