Koo Yun-cheol, Deputy Prime Minister for the economy and Minister of Strategy and Finance, said on the 6th that a supplementary budget was drawn up on the premise that the shock from the Middle East war would last about three months.
Deputy Prime Minister Koo said at the National Assembly's government question session on the economy that "we judge the Middle East war to be somewhat more prolonged than the one month we had in mind," and "we raised (the crude oil resource security alert) to the caution level, seeing that supply disruptions have occurred due to disruptions in oil transport routes."
In response to a question from Oh Ki-hyeong of the Democratic Party of Korea asking about the period for the supplementary budget, Koo said, "We are considering something like three months." On support items for related industries under the oil price cap, he said, "We put in the budget with six months in mind."
Deputy Prime Minister Koo also expressed concern about the burden on public institutions from rising energy prices. Koo said, "The increases in prices of petroleum products and liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be a burden on Korea Electric Power Corporation or the gas corporation," adding, "In the case of KEPCO, its liability exceeds 200 trillion won."
Measures to prevent electricity rate hikes were also presented. Deputy Prime Minister Koo said, "We are exploring various policies so that higher oil prices do not pass through to electricity rates: KEPCO's self-help efforts, raising the operating rate of nuclear power, increasing the operating rate of coal (power plants) to reduce the burden on oil, and expanding renewable energy."