The government and the People Power Party have agreed to hold a party-government consultative meeting on the 4th to discuss an additional supplementary budget for wildfire damage. They also plan to discuss the enactment of a "Special Act on Support for Wildfire Damage" to aid recovery efforts. Under current law, disaster victims whose homes were burned down by fire can receive up to 36 million KRW in recovery support, so enacting a special law is necessary to increase the scale of support for this unprecedented wildfire damage. The Gyeongsang Province, where the damage is concentrated, has been demanding the promotion of a special law.
Without a special law, up to 36 million KRW for homes completely destroyed by fire
According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and other related ministries on the 1st, under the standards for social disaster recovery (notification), disaster victims whose homes were completely destroyed by fire (total loss) can receive up to 36 million KRW in support. For homes that are about half-damaged ('partial loss'), the maximum is 18 million KRW. The consolation money the government can provide is about 20 million KRW at most.
There is also a system that provides low-interest loans for rebuilding homes or purchasing new ones, but the loan limits vary greatly depending on the scale. The government must proceed through consultations with related financial institutions, and it is expected to take some time before actual loans are issued. Especially since the damage in the area is extensive and there are not many homes available for purchase, it is expected to take even more time.
The support amounts stipulated by the current notification are difficult to change. Even if the notification is amended, it explicitly states that retroactive application is not possible. Therefore, enacting a special law is necessary to increase the scale of recovery support. For this reason, voices calling for special law support have been raised in Gyeongsang Province. On the 30th of last month, Lee Cheol-woo, Governor of North Gyeongsang Province, proposed to the government the enactment of a special law for the recovery and support of the super-large wildfire damage in North Gyeongsang. Since this wildfire qualifies as a social disaster, they are requesting that the scale of support be expanded to the level of natural disasters. For natural disasters such as floods, support can be up to 120 million KRW for homes completely destroyed.
Disagreement remains over the scale of financial input for wildfire damage... hindering swift discussions
The government has not yet finalized how much additional funding will be allocated for wildfire damage support. It is expected that once the scope of support is finalized during the special law discussions and the damage scale is assessed, funds for recovery support will be secured. However, the ruling and opposition parties have yet to narrow their differences regarding the currently available budget.
The Democratic Party claims that 1.5 trillion KRW from the "national treasury debt burden amount" can be mobilized for wildfire response. On the other hand, the government and the ruling party argue that the national treasury debt burden budget can only be used for facility restoration, making it difficult to allocate for compensation or living expenses for affected residents. The national treasury debt burden act is a system that allows the government to incur debt by requesting credit from the private sector without immediately securing the budget. In other words, considering the emergency situation, the government requests private sector input first, so it can only be used in limited areas such as construction support contracts.
The Democratic Party also believes that 1.6 trillion KRW from the earmarked contingency fund (contingency funds with predetermined purposes) can be immediately used for wildfire response. At the time of budget approval, the Democratic Party stipulated in the budget general provisions that 1 trillion KRW of the earmarked contingency fund be used for free high school education and 268 billion KRW for free childcare for five-year-olds. However, Choi Sang-mok, then Acting President and Deputy Prime Minister, exercised a veto on this in January, which the Democratic Party claims now allows these funds to be used for wildfire response. The government, however, believes that since the relevant law has not yet been repealed, the Democratic Party must resolve this issue before the 1.6 trillion KRW can be allocated for wildfire response.
Opinions also differ on the disaster response funds available by ministry. The Democratic Party believes that 927 billion KRW in ministry-specific disaster response funds can be used. However, the government and ruling party estimate that only about 200 billion KRW is immediately available. The remaining 720 billion KRW has either already been spent or has designated purposes, making it unusable.
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