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🇰🇷 South Korea /Economy & Trade

Incheon local currency cashback suspended as budget runs dry

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • The Incheon ium Card, a local currency offering up to 20% cashback, will temporarily suspend its cashback program due to budget depletion.
  • The city increased the cashback budget and ratio this year, but increased usage led to the early exhaustion of funds.
  • Mayor Park Nam-chun cited a significant budget shortfall, partly due to policies from the previous administration, making it difficult to cover the deficit even with municipal bonds.

Incheon's popular "Incheon ium Card" local currency program is halting its cashback benefits, with Mayor Park Nam-chun announcing the suspension will begin next week as the allocated budget runs out.

The cashback payments for the Incheon ium Card (local currency), which operated by returning up to 20% as cashback, will be suspended.

— Park Nam-chunMayor of Incheon, announcing the suspension of cashback benefits.

The city had increased the cashback budget to 258.1 billion won this year, a rise of about 100 billion won from last year. In April, the cashback rate doubled to 20% and the monthly spending limit increased to 500,000 won, requiring an additional 135.7 billion won in supplementary budgeting. However, these enhanced benefits led to the rapid depletion of funds.

The Incheon ium budget for this year will be completely depleted next week. Therefore, we will unavoidably suspend the cashback payments for the Incheon ium Card from the point when the budget is exhausted next week.

— Park Nam-chunExplaining the immediate reason for the suspension.

Mayor Park explained that a significant budget deficit, estimated at 450 billion won, is hindering the program's continuation. He attributed part of the financial strain to policies enacted by the previous administration, which he claims were designed to defer costs beyond 2027. Even mobilizing the maximum allowable municipal bonds of 220 billion won would not be enough to cover the shortfall.

Even mobilizing the maximum amount of local bonds that Incheon City can issue, 220 billion won, it is difficult to cover the gap.

— Park Nam-chunDescribing the scale of the budget shortfall.

Consequently, Mayor Park's campaign pledge, the "100-Day Project for Livelihood Recovery," which included expanding the ium Card's cashback and raising the monthly limit to 1 million won, is effectively postponed indefinitely. "I am deeply sorry that I cannot immediately fulfill the promise I made upon taking office," Park stated, emphasizing the need to stop unsustainable financial practices. The city is establishing a task force to conduct a comprehensive review of its financial and budget structure.

I am deeply sorry that I cannot immediately fulfill the promise I made upon taking office. However, filling the hole in the upper part by taking from the lower part will only lead to a greater crisis. We will stop when we must stop and look further ahead.

— Park Nam-chunApologizing for the delay of his campaign pledge and explaining his fiscal approach.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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