Lowering the Threshold for Electricity Bill Support for Small Business Owners

Expansion to Small Business Owners with Annual Sales of 60 Million Won or Less

The eligibility for electricity bill support for micro small business owners has been expanded from those with annual sales of 30 million KRW or less to those with annual sales of 60 million KRW or less.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 7th that it has started accepting applications for the 3rd special electricity bill support project, which expands the support targets for micro small business owners and simplifies the submission documents.

The biggest feature of this support is the expansion of the target to small business owners with annual sales of 60 million KRW or less. Small business owners who applied in the 1st and 2nd rounds in the first half of the year but were not supported due to exceeding the sales criteria will also be supported without a separate application if they meet the expanded criteria this time.

For those who have a direct contract with Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), they can apply by entering business information and KEPCO customer number as before, and the electricity bill will be deducted from the invoice. Non-contract users who do not have a direct contract with KEPCO only need to submit one receipt showing a payment of 12,000 KRW or more per month to receive the electricity bill support amount refunded to their account. This greatly simplifies the procedure from the previous method of submitting monthly payment receipts from 2023 to verify electricity bill payments.

The 3rd electricity bill support application will be available from the 8th at ‘소상공인전기요금특별지원.kr’. Small business owners who have difficulty applying online can visit one of the 77 regional centers of the Small Enterprise and Market Service for assistance. Detailed information can be found in the announcement on the Ministry of SMEs and Startups website. Guidance is also provided through the Small Business Electricity Bill Special Support Call Center.

Hwang Young-ho, head of the SME COVID-19 Recovery Support Group at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, “As we have expanded the support targets and restructured the process to make it easier to receive support, we hope this will help alleviate the management burden of more small business owners.”