At Least 6 Million Won for Small Business Owners and Self-Employed (Comprehensive)

First Ruling Party-Government Meeting of Yoon Seok-yeol Administration
Agreement on '33 Trillion+α' 2nd Supplementary Budget

People Power Party floor leader Kwon Seong-dong and Deputy Prime Minister for Economy Choo Kyung-ho are attending the 2nd supplementary budget meeting related to compensation for losses of small business owners held at the National Assembly on the 11th, talking before the meeting starts. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporters Hyunju Lee and Hyunji Kwon] The newly launched Yoon Suk-yeol administration and the ruling party have decided to provide at least 6 million KRW per person to 3.7 million small business owners and self-employed individuals affected by COVID-19 through the second supplementary budget this year. The ruling party and government agreed to set the size of the second supplementary budget at "33 trillion KRW + α" and to secure funds through expenditure restructuring.

Kwon Seong-dong, floor leader of the People Power Party, said at a briefing after the first ruling party-government meeting since the government’s launch on the 11th, "We requested that at least 6 million KRW be paid to all self-employed and small business owners, as well as medium-sized enterprises with sales under 3 billion KRW, totaling 3.7 million people," adding, "The government accepted this part." He further stated, "The 6 million KRW will be paid regardless of whether there was a loss or not, and there will be 'plus alpha' amounts depending on the industry."

The People Power Party also requested the government to include industries excluded from the existing quarantine support fund, such as travel, performance and exhibition, and air transportation sectors, in the support target. On the same day, Seong Il-jong, chairman of the People Power Party’s Policy Committee, explained at a briefing, "We requested to raise the loss compensation adjustment rate from the current 90% to 100% and to expand the minimum loss compensation amount from 500,000 KRW to 1 million KRW," adding, "There are many blind spots in COVID-19 damage support, so we ensured that special types of workers and freelancers such as corporate taxi drivers, charter bus drivers, route bus drivers, cultural artists, insurance planners, and substitute drivers are all supported without exception."

Along with this, the ruling party and government also decided to provide up to 1 million KRW as temporary additional support to 220,000 low-income vulnerable households. Chairman Seong said, "We requested to expand support for low-income vulnerable groups beyond the government’s proposal by temporarily increasing emergency living support funds from 750,000 KRW to up to 1 million KRW, and the government agreed to reflect this," adding, "We also requested that support measures for rising fertilizer prices for farms and wildfire damages be included in the supplementary budget."

The government announced that it reviewed all discretionary expenditures from scratch to secure funds for the supplementary budget. At the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho said, "We promoted expenditure restructuring of the main budget’s spending projects and made efforts to maximize the discovery of all available resources such as global surplus funds and Bank of Korea surplus funds," adding, "This supplementary budget plan will be submitted to the Cabinet meeting on Thursday and the National Assembly on Friday after today’s ruling party-government meeting." The government plans to hold the first extraordinary Cabinet meeting on the 12th to approve the supplementary budget plan.