Gwangju Nam-gu Allocates District Funds to Provide Kerosene Support for Basic Livelihood Security Households

Nam-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, is launching its own project this year to support the energy shortfall of low-income households using kerosene boilers by investing district funds, aiming to realize welfare for energy-vulnerable groups and reduce fuel cost burdens.

On the 26th, Nam-gu announced, "Separately from the heating fuel support projects promoted by the government and Gwangju City, we have prepared 80 million won in district funds to implement a voucher project that provides kerosene to energy-vulnerable households," adding, "We are taking steps to realize universal energy welfare through additional energy supply."

The reason for pursuing this project separately is that although the government supports heating costs for low-income households through energy vouchers, briquette subsidies, and heating oil projects, and Gwangju City also provides support annually with city funds, households using kerosene still face practical difficulties.

Thanks to various supports from the government and Gwangju City, energy-vulnerable households in the district effectively use electricity, city gas, district heating, kerosene, LPG, and briquettes as needed by each household.

However, the economic burden on households using kerosene has not been significantly alleviated. According to Nam-gu’s analysis, this is because kerosene prices have surged sharply in recent years, resulting in much higher annual energy costs compared to other fuels.

In fact, an investigation of data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s Energy Census and Korea National Oil Corporation’s oil price information found that a two-person household requires 708 liters of kerosene annually, and the kerosene price increased by 538 won per liter from 966 won in 2021 to 1,504 won in 2023.

Meanwhile, the amount of kerosene provided to energy-vulnerable households using kerosene in the district ranges from a minimum of 393 liters to a maximum of 519 liters depending on the support conditions of the government and Gwangju City. Compared to the annual required amount, this is short by about 189 to 315 liters, and the rise in kerosene prices makes fuel costs considerable.

Accordingly, starting this year, Nam-gu plans to provide kerosene vouchers worth 160,000 won (equivalent to 106 liters) per household to 500 low-income households using kerosene as an energy source to ease their fuel cost burden.

Households wishing to receive kerosene vouchers must visit their local administrative welfare center by March 8 to submit an application form, and the kerosene vouchers are scheduled to be distributed by March 15.

A Nam-gu official stated, "We will provide overlapping support to households already benefiting from government and Gwangju City assistance, and also offer kerosene vouchers to households that do not meet the support conditions and thus have not received benefits, so this will be a great help in reducing fuel costs for kerosene-using households in the district."

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