5th Emergency Meeting on People’s Livelihood Stabilization
Government Works to Tame Inflation Ahead of Chuseok Holiday
President Yoon Suk-yeol presided over the fifth Emergency Meeting on People’s Livelihood Stabilization on August 11, and discussed plans to tame inflation ahead of Chuseok holiday.
The following is a summary of the plans announced.
Reinforce infectious disease prevention and control
- Perform special inspection in relation to infectious disease prevention and control at multi-purpose facilities such as theaters, accommodations, concert halls and hypermarkets
- Announce Covid-19 vaccination plans against new variants to brace for the resurgence
- Operate screening clinics during Chuseok holiday as well as one-stop medical clinics that provide testing, diagnosis and prescriptions
- Provide a customized treatment plans for various symptom levels, secure hospital beds and operate 24-hour access local situation rooms
- Perform special inspection at infection-vulnerable facilities such as nursing hospitals and psychiatric hospitals before and after Chuseok holiday
Stabilize prices
- Work to increase the supply of agricultural products such as cabbage, radish (stockpile release and vegetable price stabilization policies), onion, garlic (stockpile release and tariff quotas) and potato (stockpile release and import)
- Provide financial support for the meat processing, increase the supply of poultry by applying tariff quotas and increase the amount of eggs for retail sales
- Release the entire government stockpile of pollock (11,000 tons) and mackerel (1,000 tons)
- Reduce the prices by 30-40 percent on agricultural products such as cabbage, radish, garlic, onion and potato by distributing discount coupons and encouraging supermarkets and agricultural cooperatives to lower prices
- Lower the prices by 20-30 percent on domestic beef and pork through discount coupons, check-off funds and by 30-40 percent on imported beef through tariff quotas
- Reduce prices by up to 50 percent on pollock, mackerel, squid, flatfish, etc. through discount coupons and encourage supermarkets and fisheries cooperatives to lower prices
- Monitor and release the supply, demand and price trends on daily basis of top 20 items that are in high demand for Chuseok holiday and assist express delivery by allowing freight trucks to travel downtown and operate a 24-hour customs clearance system
- Apply additional tariff quotas on potato and modified starch and organize a body in charge of monitoring the logistics and prices of food ingredients such as cooking oil
Improve people’s livelihood
- Restructure payment for long-overdue delinquent bills for health insurance premiums, public housing rents and provide a special consulting services on student loan repayment
- Expand transportation discount for low-income households, provide expenses purchasing necessities (diapers, infant formulas and sanitary items) and provide food grains to social welfare institutions
- Roll out emergency relief grant (second round), emergency employment stability subsidies, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and Child Tax credit (CTC) as soon as possible
- Quickly provide energy vouchers to low-income households, financially help businesses prevent back payment and provide living expenses to low-income artists
- Provide child care to children aged under twelve from single or working parent households
- Freeze the National Housing and Urban Fund’s mortgage and housing rental loan rates within this year and extend the low fixed-rate loan program to end of the year
- Operate a pan-ministerial body in charge of monitoring jeonse (lump-sum deposits with no monthly payments) frauds and help vulnerable groups relocate to public rental housing as soon as possible
- Work to introduce 5G mobile network plans taking into account the average data usage of the subscribers, promote use of budget mobile phones, and increase the cost of school meals in the second semester by about 9 percent compared to the first semester
- Facilitate the use discount transportation cards, announce by the end of August to allow toll fee exemption during September 9-11, and freeze public utility charges in 10 metropolitan areas within the second half of this year
- Provide the largest holiday subsidy ever worth 42.6 trillion won to microbusinesses and SMEs, make an early payment for public procurement and give national tax refund earlier than planned
- Set up a reporting center to collect unfair practices to protect subcontractors and designate a special period to work to resolve disputes related to unfair trade practices
- Prepare various policy financing measures to reduce the debt burden of microbusinesses and come up with a plan in August to improve competitiveness of microbusinesses
- Increase the purchase limit of traditional market gift certificates as well as increase discount rate of the discount coupons for purchasing agriculture and livestock products
- Extend the period applicable for charitable tax credit to the end of 2022 and launch a donation campaigns in the public sector ahead of Chuseok holiday
Promote transportation convenience and cultural activities
- Increase the service frequency of public transports including buses, trains, planes, passenger vessels and announce in early September special measures to address traffic congestion during Chuseok holiday
- Offer free admission to four royal palaces, Jongmyo Shrine and Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty, hold cultural festivals in 25 local governments and holiday events at the museums and cultural facilities
Ensure safety
- Perform pre-inspection on major transport infrastructures, take actions to ensure fire safety in traditional marketplaces, bus terminals, supermarkets and accommodations, etc. and take control of the violation of safety rules in construction sites, shipyards and steel mills to prevent industrial accidents
- Prepare a system to issue early advisories and warnings for heavy storm and torrential rain and frontload payment for disaster insurance premiums as well as enable rapid assessment of the damage
- Perform pre-inspection on electricity supply and demand and emergency power reserves in preparation for heat wave by applying a special period until September 8 to monitor electricity supply and demand
Please refer to the attached pdf.