A proposal to add 45.9 billion won to the government's supplementary budget to fund fuel subsidies for chartered buses passed a standing committee subcommittee of the National Assembly. The move reflects concerns that chartered buses, unlike regular route buses and taxis, have been left in a blind spot of the government's high oil price relief measures, deepening financial strain on the industry.
The Budget and Accounts Subcommittee of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee convened on the 6th and approved a supplementary budget review adding 45.93 billion won for a fuel subsidy program. The measure aims to ease the fuel cost burden on the chartered bus industry amid surging oil prices. The newly allocated amount was calculated based on the assumption of providing a monthly fuel cost subsidy of 400,000 won for three months to all 38,282 chartered buses nationwide.
Chartered buses have been excluded from fuel subsidy programs even during periods of high oil prices. This is because the current enforcement decree of the Passenger Transport Service Act stipulates fuel subsidies for diesel consumption only for route buses and taxis.
The government and the National Assembly reached an agreement to provide fuel subsidies, considering that 70% of chartered bus passengers use the service for commuting to work or school — effectively serving as "quasi-public transit" — and that 97% of chartered buses run on diesel.
Rep. Song Ki-heon of the Democratic Party of Korea noted at a plenary session of the Land and Transport Committee held on the 1st, "Diesel prices have surged more than 21% in roughly 10 days, and the chartered bus industry, where fuel accounts for 25% to 40% of costs, is taking a direct hit with transportation costs rising 5% to 8%." He added, "It is possible to include chartered buses in the fuel subsidy program simply by revising the government's enforcement decree."
An additional 66.6 billion won was also approved to halve the threshold amount for "Modoo Card," the flat-rate option of K-Pass, the government's public transit fare refund service. K-Pass is divided into a basic plan that refunds a portion of spending for regular public transit users, and a flat-rate plan that reimburses transit spending exceeding a set threshold.
The current threshold in the Seoul metropolitan area is 62,000 won. If the amount is halved to 31,000 won, all transit spending above that level will be fully refunded. The measure is aimed at reducing the financial burden on citizens by expanding the scale of public transit fare refunds.