Busan Metropolitan City will stop charging residents separately for replacement costs of special city gas meters starting this month, becoming the first among Korea's special and metropolitan cities to do so.
Under the new policy, residential city gas users will only pay the monthly base fee of 990 won, with expected annual savings for citizens estimated at around 1 billion to 1.2 billion won.
Until now, households using special meters had been paying the replacement costs in installments over five years.
Unlike regular meters, special meters include remote reading, gas leak detection and automatic shut-off functions. Because of their higher cost, an additional fee of 398 won per month for Grade 4 meters had been charged separately.
The city adjusted the fee structure through consultations with Busan City Gas, the local gas supplier, to return the benefits of reduced operating costs to residents.
