Dongbaekjeon Cashback in Busan Up to 10% in the New Year... Monthly Limit Set at 500,000 Won

Starting in the new year, the cashback rate for Busan's local currency will be set at up to 10%.

The Busan Metropolitan Government announced that, in order to boost local consumption and increase sales for small business owners, the cashback rate for the Dongbaekjeon local currency will be applied at up to 10% from January to June next year. The monthly cashback limit will remain at 500,000 won during this period.

To stimulate domestic consumption, the city has operated with increased cashback rates and limits since January this year, allocating 87 billion won from the city budget. In particular, with the increase in national funding from September, the cashback rate was raised to a maximum of 13%. As a result, the amount of Dongbaekjeon issued from January to November this year reached 1.56 trillion won, up about 26% from 1.23 trillion won in the same period last year.

Building on these results, Busan plans to continue operating the cashback policy in a relatively stable manner next year to sustain the consumption-boosting effect and strengthen support for small business owners. In the past, frequent changes in the cashback rate due to the timing and amount of national funding had caused inconvenience for citizens and concerns about declining trust in the policy. Next year, in line with the revised law mandating national support for the issuance of local gift certificates, the city will maintain a 10% cashback rate as its operational principle.

Accordingly, in the first half of next year, the cashback rate will remain at 10%, and the monthly limit will stay at 500,000 won. The operational plan for the second half of the year will be announced separately after a comprehensive review of issuance trends and financial conditions.

In particular, from January to June next year, the cashback rate will be applied differentially according to annual sales so that the benefits are concentrated on small-scale business owners. Merchants with annual sales of 1 billion won or less will receive a 10% cashback rate, those with sales between 1 billion and 3 billion won will receive 8%, and merchants with sales exceeding 3 billion won will not be eligible for cashback. This policy, which has been in place since 2023, is intended to benefit small-scale merchants, who account for 90% of all participating businesses.

The 10% cashback rate will also be applied in the first half of next year to the public delivery app 'Ddanggyeyo', the taxi-hailing public app 'Dongbaek Taxi', and the online local product mall 'Dongbaek Mall', all of which accept Dongbaekjeon.

Busan Mayor Park Hyungjoon stated, "We hope the Dongbaekjeon cashback policy will ease household burdens for citizens and lead to increased sales for neighborhood businesses and small business owners," adding, "We will continue to support Dongbaekjeon so it can serve as a key driver for the virtuous cycle of the local economy."

Busan City Hall.