Seong Il-jong Proposes Military Personnel Act Amendment to Convert Non-Commissioned Officer Incentive Allowance into Incentive Payment

Non-commissioned Officers to Receive Tax-exempt Incentive Payments Like Officers

A bill has been proposed to convert the incentive allowance paid to non-commissioned officers into an incentive payment that is exempt from taxation.

Seong Il-jong, Chairman of the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly (People Power Party), announced on the 9th that he has taken the lead in proposing the "Partial Amendment to the Military Personnel Act," which contains this provision.

This amendment aims to change the incentive allowance paid to non-commissioned officers into an "incentive payment" to receive tax exemption benefits. Until now, there has been controversy within the military regarding fairness, as only officers have received tax-exempt benefits in the form of incentive payments.

Chairman Seong stated, "Although both are officers, it is unreasonable that officers receive tax-exempt benefits as incentive payments while non-commissioned officers do not receive tax-exempt benefits for their allowances. This amendment seeks to correct this and ensure fairness in the officer service system."

He also pointed out, "Recently, the number of discharged personnel has increased while the number of commissioned officers has decreased, causing a rapid disruption in the non-commissioned officer manpower structure," adding, "Non-commissioned officers are at the core of actual combat command and troop management, and improving their treatment is directly linked to strengthening military power."

According to the Ministry of National Defense, from 2020 to last year, the number of non-commissioned officers commissioned decreased by 43.4%, while the number of discharged personnel increased by only 8.4%. In particular, last year, the number of discharged personnel was 11,149, exceeding the number of commissioned officers (4,605) by 2.4 times, raising the possibility of a serious problem for future military strength.

Chairman Seong expressed, "If this amendment is passed, it is expected to contribute to expanding military personnel inflow by simultaneously improving fairness and effectiveness in military service conditions," and added, "We will continue to seek various ways to improve the treatment of non-commissioned officers."