Assemblyman Lee Byung-hoon: "In-house Loans at Public Institutions Must Meet Public Expectations"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Congressman Lee Byung-hoon (Gwangju Dong-gu Nam-gu Eul) has argued that in-house loans at public institutions should be aligned with the public's expectations.

On the 27th, after analyzing the National Assembly audit data submitted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Congressman Lee revealed that public institutions under the Ministry operate low-interest, overly generous in-house loans.

The Korea Tourism Organization, under the Ministry, provided in-house loans to employees with more than one year of service for housing purchase and rental costs. The average loan amount per person was about 105 million KRW, with an interest rate of only 1.6% per annum, and the total loan amount reached 35.55 billion KRW over the past five years.

The Korea Sports Promotion Foundation issued housing-related loans ranging from 50 million to 100 million KRW depending on the length of service, totaling 5.055 billion KRW, and including student loans and living stabilization funds of 2.436 billion KRW, the total in-house loans amounted to approximately 7.49 billion KRW.

In the case of the Korean Film Council, although there were no housing-related loans, they provided student loans at an interest rate of 1.0% per annum within 70% of severance pay to employees, their spouses, and children. This rate is about 60% of the Ministry of Education's student loan interest rate of 1.7%.

The Korea Press Foundation also had 117 employees use in-house loans capped at 30 million KRW over the past five years, totaling 3.295 billion KRW, with an interest rate of only 1.5%.

Grand Korea Leisure (GKL), which operates casinos for foreigners in Korea, suffered operating losses of 88.8 billion KRW in 2020 and 145.8 billion KRW in 2021 due to COVID-19. However, during the same period (2020?2021), it provided housing-related in-house loans amounting to about 25 billion KRW at an interest rate of 1.5% to 195 employees, recording the highest average loan amount per person at approximately 130 million KRW. Over the past five years, the total in-house loan amount was 41.642 billion KRW, the largest scale among the institutions.

Congressman Lee Byung-hoon stated, “While ordinary citizens are suffering from high interest rates above 7% amid the triple crisis of high exchange rates, high interest rates, and high prices, this can cause relative deprivation and resentment.” He added, “Although in-house loans at public institutions are provided as part of employee welfare, it is necessary to promptly reform the in-house welfare system to meet the public’s expectations.”