President Lee Jae-myung said at a press conference marking the first anniversary of his inauguration, held at the Blue House state guesthouse on the 8th, that he would make long-term investments of excess tax revenue generated by the semiconductor boom to restore the potential growth rate.
In response to a question that day on how to use the excess tax revenue generated by the semiconductor boom, the president said, "We should invest in building Korea's growth potential for future generations," adding, "We should invest in semiconductors and in discovering new growth engines."
The president said, "Treating it as ordinary revenue and using it for fiscal expenditure is a foolish act that abandons the role of fiscal policy," adding, "We will rule out treating it as ordinary revenue and exhausting it through fiscal expenditure." He also said, "Some say that because national debt has increased, we should pay down the debt, but that too is a foolish act," adding, "Raising the potential growth rate is the key task."
The president said the government should take a cautious approach to using corporations' excess profits. He said, "The labor-management conflict over the allocation of Samsung Electronics' operating profit has posed a new question for our society," adding, "The problem is that if only Korea does this, corporations will end up fleeing Korea. Overseas high-tech companies will be reluctant to invest domestically."
The president said, "Unlike corporate taxes, the allocation of excess profits is an agenda item that is hard to predict from the perspective of corporations and could have very serious effects on national industrial policy," adding, "We should discuss it carefully, and discussion is needed not only domestically but also at the international level."