President Lee Jae-myung on Monday ordered a full lifting, rather than a phased easing, of vehicle operation restrictions in the public sector in line with the easing of the energy crisis. He also called for a review of a plan to convert tens of trillions of won worth of unused points accumulated through card payments, shopping and memberships into local currency.
At a Cabinet meeting doubling as an emergency economic review held at the Blue House that day, the government decided to lower the crude oil resource security alert from the previous "caution" level to the "watch" level, and to lift the liquefied natural gas (LNG) crisis alert. Accordingly, public-sector vehicle operation restrictions and the five-day rotation system for vehicles at public parking lots will also end.
After receiving a related report from Moon Shin-hak, Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, President Lee said, "You say you will ease the two-day vehicle rotation to a five-day rotation, but the vehicle operation restrictions were implemented preemptively so that public officials could set an example in a crisis situation." He asked, "Haven't public officials sacrificed too harshly? Is the difference between running the five-day rotation and lifting it really that big?"
When Vice Minister Moon said, "If you consider the impact on fuel consumption, there is no major problem even with the five-day rotation," but added, "We (public officials) could not bring ourselves to say we would abolish it," Kim Yong-beom, Director of the Office of National Policy at the Blue House, lent his support, calling it "a bureaucratic manual" and saying, "It is fine to do as the president has decided." In response, President Lee again stressed, "If it is not effective, let's lift it all," adding, "Regulations should be limited to cases where they are truly necessary."
As energy supply conditions stabilized, along with the lowering of the crisis alert, support for diversified crude oil freight cost differences, strategic oil reserve swaps, and support for naphtha substitute import cost differences will also end as of that day. However, the government, judging that the possibility of intermittent supply chain bottlenecks remains for some items, decided to continue measures to stabilize the supply of naphtha and petrochemical products beyond July. President Lee said, "More efficient and focused crisis management is needed from a mid- to long-term perspective," and urged, "Please push forward without wavering on long-term tasks such as diversifying energy and raw material supply chains."
Meanwhile, President Lee added, "The foundation for creating sustainable growth momentum is the people's real consumption capacity and consumption vitality," and gave a further instruction: "Please push forward with a plan to convert tens of trillions of won worth of unused card payment points and shopping and membership reward points into local currency."
