20,000-won phone bill subsidy plan not gaining support

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun delivers a speech on the government’s fourth supplementary budget bill in a plenary session at the National Assembly in Seoul, Monday, as parties start reviewing the bill this week. The government submitted the 7.8 trillion won ($6.59 billion) supplementary budget bill to the Assembly, Friday, aimed at minimizing the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Yonhap

By Jung Da-min

Controversy is growing over the government plan to give 20,000 won ($17) to all people over 13 to help them pay their phone bills, as a part of the fourth extra budget.

The opposition parties, and even some members of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), claim the plan is against the government's initial plan to provide “tailored” disaster relief for people heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, including small business owners, the self-employed, young jobseekers and other low-income groups.

The parties started scrutinizing this year's fourth extra budget set at 7.8 trillion won, Monday, after the government submitted the relevant bill to the National Assembly last Friday. The ruling party plans to approve the bill in a plenary session scheduled for this Friday.

The DPK said the subsidy was to help people with their contactless activities which have soared in line with the government's social distancing restrictions. President Moon Jae-in said the money would be a “small consolation” from the government for all citizens.

But many cast doubt whether it would help boost the economy when the money will just be paid to telecom companies.

The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) has said it would remove the phone bill payment from the budget. “The around 1 trillion won to be spent for mobile phone bills can be otherwise spent to provide 500,000 won in scholarships to the nation's 1.99 million college students who are receiving low-quality education due to online classes,” PPP spokesman Rep. Bae June-young said in a statement. “What we want is not 20,000 won worth of equality.”

Not only opposition lawmakers but some ruling party members also remained skeptical about the idea.

Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung said last week that he would introduce a total of 100 billion won to help the 3.33 million residents in the province as he saw little practical help for the people with the government's phone bill subsidy.

South Gyeongsang Province Governor Kim Kyung-soo also wrote on Facebook, Sunday, that he proposes the government invest in expanding free Wi-Fi networks instead of giving out the 20,000 won.

“Rather than paying one-time communication costs with a budget of 900 billion won, it would be of great help for the people to reduce their communication costs if the government expanded free Wi-Fi networks in public places including schools, public transportation and senior citizens centers,” Kim wrote.

The public is also negative about the 20,000 won plan.

In a poll of 500 adults conducted by Realmeter last Friday, 58.2 percent of respondents did not support the government's idea of offering the money, while 37.8 percent liked the idea.