Affordable Price Businesses Face Reduced Government Funding... "Sustainability Must Be Ensured Through Legislation"

Affordable Price Businesses Started in 2011
National Funding Support from 2023
"Need for Stable Support Based on Established Grounds"

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety has been pointed out that there is no legal basis for national funding support for the 'Good Price Store' system, which was created to support small businesses, and that legislation is needed. The purpose is to establish a systematic foundation to prevent situations where national funding support is suddenly cut or reduced.

According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on the 21st, the Good Price Store system has been in operation since 2011, but national funding support only began in 2023. In 2023, 1.5 billion KRW was provided under the name of 'temporary support,' and in 2024, a budget of 1.8 billion KRW was actively invested. With the start of national funding support, the average support amount per store increased from 450,000 KRW to 850,000 KRW. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety has increased the national budget to 3 billion KRW in line with its plan to increase the number of Good Price Stores from about 8,000 this year to 12,000 next year.

The Good Price Store system is jointly operated by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and local governments to induce price stabilization. These are places that offer low prices and high-quality services. When a local government designates a Good Price Store, the store receives support such as reductions in public utility fees like water and sewage charges and supplies like volume-based waste bags. However, if a designated store raises its service prices above those of nearby commercial areas, its designation as a Good Price Store can be canceled.

In this context, there are concerns that the lack of a legal basis for supporting Good Price Stores makes it difficult to guarantee the continuity of support. Currently, the Good Price Store system is promoted based on the 'Price Stabilization Act,' but there is no direct legal provision explicitly mentioning 'Good Price Stores.' As of last year, the system operates based on ordinances supporting Good Price Stores in 16 metropolitan local governments and 219 basic local governments.

The Korea Institute of Public Administration suggested in its 'Study on Activation Measures for Good Price Stores' that "a direct legal basis for the Good Price Store support system should be established to secure budgets and lay the foundation for stable project implementation." The research team pointed out that "under the current system, where price increases are practically difficult after designation as a Good Price Store, the lack of differentiated legal and financial support is insufficient to alleviate the management difficulties of Good Price Store businesses." An example cited was the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' 'Baeknyeon Gage (Hundred-Year Store)' system. Although 7.7 billion KRW was invested in Baeknyeon Gage in 2022, the budget sharply dropped to 400 million KRW in 2024, leading to the inclusion of 'Hundred-Year Small Business Support' in the Small Business Act to establish a legal basis for management and financial support.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety also internally agrees on the necessity of a legal basis. A ministry official explained, "There was a consensus that it would be necessary to create a legal basis for supporting Good Price Stores through a general law based on regional economic revitalization. However, we have not yet reached the stage of concrete legislation."