{"id":2200094,"date":"2023-02-15T02:47:08","date_gmt":"2023-02-15T02:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/koreapro\/?p=2200094"},"modified":"2023-04-05T16:09:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T07:09:45","slug":"south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Seoul will freeze public utility fees for first half of year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">President Yoon Suk-yeol <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.yna.co.kr\/view\/AEN20230215005100315?section=news\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">said<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Wednesday the government plans to freeze utility fees, including railroad, postal and other public utility fees, in the first half of the year to help ease people&#8217;s economic burdens. Yoon\u2019s announcement comes amid a public outcry over soaring electricity and gas bills, interest rates and inflation. The Seoul city government initially <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/koreajoongangdaily.joins.com\/2022\/12\/29\/national\/socialAffairs\/korea-transportation-fee-bus\/20221229174424677.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">planned<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to raise public transportation fares by the end of April but has postponed the plan due to Yoon\u2019s announcement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saying that the communications and financial industries have \u201cstrong characteristics of a public good,\u201d Yoon encouraged them to voluntarily take part in \u201csharing the pain of price stabilization, in tandem with the government\u2019s efforts.\u201d He added that the government must \u201cbase all policies on science\u201d and that policies driven by \u201cideology and populism have proven to bring suffering to the people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Why It Matters<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">President Yoon\u2019s seeming engagement in populist economic policy \u2014 his criticism of ideology and populism notwithstanding \u2014 could have negative repercussions for telecommunication and financial companies, as they could become less competitive if they are forced to set aside more capital for political purposes. By forcing them to \u201cshare the pain of price stabilization,\u201d those companies\u2019 dividends could be pushed further down, exacerbating the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/koreapro\/2022\/05\/the-korea-discount-why-south-koreas-stock-market-is-so-underpriced\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Korea discount<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> phenomenon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The price freeze that Yoon has proposed delays the price hike, meaning that South Korean businesses and consumers will potentially end up paying significantly higher prices in the second half of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-tags\"><a href=\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/tag\/business-economy\/\"><span class=\"tag\">Business &amp; Economy<\/span><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/tag\/domestic-politics\/\"><span class=\"tag\">Domestic Politics<\/span><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Yoon Suk-yeol said Wednesday the government plans to freeze utility fees, including railroad, postal and other public utility fees, in the first half of the year to help ease people&#8217;s economic burdens. Yoon\u2019s announcement comes amid a public outcry over soaring electricity and gas bills, interest rates and inflation. The Seoul city government initially [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10407,"featured_media":2200095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[24,27],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Seoul will freeze public utility fees for first half of year - KOREA PRO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seoul will freeze public utility fees for first half of year - KOREA PRO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Yoon Suk-yeol said Wednesday the government plans to freeze utility fees, including railroad, postal and other public utility fees, in the first half of the year to help ease people&#8217;s economic burdens. Yoon\u2019s announcement comes amid a public outcry over soaring electricity and gas bills, interest rates and inflation. The Seoul city government initially [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"KOREA PRO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/nknewsorg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-02-15T02:47:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-05T07:09:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/02\/3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1870\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1110\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"johnleenknews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@southkoreapro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@southkoreapro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"KOREA PRO\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"johnleenknews\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/#\/schema\/person\/b9766dba611638edc06a6e0b7078714d\"},\"headline\":\"Seoul will freeze public utility fees for first half of year\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-15T02:47:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-05T07:09:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/\"},\"wordCount\":253,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.korearisk.com\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/02\/3.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Business &amp; Economy\",\"Domestic Politics\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Briefings\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/\",\"name\":\"Seoul will freeze public utility fees for first half of year - KOREA PRO\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.korearisk.com\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/02\/3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-02-15T02:47:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-05T07:09:45+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/assets.korearisk.com\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/02\/3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/assets.korearisk.com\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/02\/3.jpg\",\"width\":1870,\"height\":1110},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/2023\/02\/south-korea-will-freeze-public-utility-fees-for-first-half-of-year\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Seoul will freeze public utility fees for first half of year\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/koreapro.org\/\",\"name\":\"KOREA PRO\",\"description\":\"Be smart about South Korea. 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