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South Korean President Moon Jae-in addresses his senior aides and secretaries at the Blue House on Aug. 6 after returning from his short summer holiday. (Blue House photo pool)

On Aug. 6, South Korean President Moon Jae-in instructed his staff to finalize a plan for reducing the burden of the electric bill so that this can be applied to the July electric bill. This is to be achieved by temporarily relaxing the current progressive billing scheme for household electric bills—under which the rate goes up in stages as usage increases — during the months of July and August and to give low-income earners and social welfare facilities higher discounts for electricity usage.

“Every family is really worried about its electric bill because of the heat wave this summer,” Moon said while asking his staff to find ways to ease that burden. Moon made the comments while presiding over a meeting of his senior secretaries and aides at the Blue House on Monday afternoon.

“Since there is considerable demand to reform or abolish the progressive billing scheme for home electricity use, officials should compare electric bills and the level of the progressive billing scheme in Korea with other countries and bring those facts to the public’s attention. We need to canvass the public and consider ways to improve the system,” Moon said.

Even though the recent heat wave has kept the temperature at historic highs, near 40 degrees Celsius, the prevailing view in the public is that people are reluctant to turn on the air conditioning because of the progressive billing scheme for electricity. This is what prompted Moon to ask officials to temporarily lower electric bills and devise improvements for the progressive billing scheme. This also appears to have been motivated by public discontent with the fact that the progressive billing scheme only applies to household electricity usage. As the scorching heat this summer drags on, a spate of petitions calling for improving or abolishing the progressive billing scheme have been posted on the Blue House’s petition website.

Moon also categorized the heat wave as a natural disaster and emphasized that countermeasures should be devised with the attitude that combating the heat wave with air conditioning is a basic form of welfare.

“We need to devise fundamental measures while regarding heat waves as an ongoing natural disaster that can occur every year because of abnormal weather conditions around the world. In addition to categorizing heat waves as a ‘special disaster,’ we need to regard air conditioning as a basic form of welfare that’s directly connected with people’s health and safety and find ways to ensure that no one is prevented from using air conditioning because they’re worried about their electricity bill,” Moon said. He called for the government to take measures to prevent the formation of a segment of the population without access to air conditioning, including working-class individuals unable to use air conditioning because of the electricity bill and low-income individuals who don’t even have an air conditioner.

“President Moon’s remarks were made in consideration of the rapid increase of deaths caused by the heat wave, the growing number of people suffering from heat-related conditions and the fact that the majority of those people either don’t have an air conditioner or have one but are afraid to use it because of the electricity bill,” said Blue House Spokesperson Kim Eui-kyum in a briefing after the meeting of senior secretaries and aides, as he explained the reasons for Moon’s orders to reduce the cost of electricity.

Considering that air conditioning usage is causing power consumption to soar, Moon asked his staff to ensure there were no problems with the power supply. “The heat wave could lead to a greater increase in power usage, so we must do everything in our power to manage the power supply until the heat wave is over,” he said.

By Kim Bo-hyeop, staff reporter

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