Millions apply for consumption coupons; Gov't eyes further stimulus

South Korea's much-anticipated livelihood recovery consumption coupons have seen an overwhelming response, drawing millions of applicants on the first day of availability.

Moon Ji-young tells us more.

On the first day of applications for South Korea's livelihood recovery consumption coupons, nearly 7 million people — representing roughly 14 percent of the total eligible recipients — applied for them.

According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the total amount disbursed on the first day exceeded 1-point-2-7 trillion won.

Credit and debit card applications were the most popular ways of receiving money, accounting for 77 percent of the total. Among community-based gift certificates, mobile applications were the most frequent, with nearly one million applicants, followed by prepaid cards and then paper gift certificates.

Some local governments have faced a shortage of paper-based community-based gift certificates, which are crucial for the elderly who often find the digital application process for card-type coupons challenging.

"For me, living alone, I believe it will certainly help with my meals."

The significant uptake highlights the public's immediate interest in the government's stimulus initiative.

At a cabinet meeting held on Tuesday, President Lee Jae Myung highlighted the government's commitment to ensuring the coupons do not exacerbate economic burdens.

"Though these coupons offer income support, the primary objective, fundamentally, is to boost consumption and drive economic recovery. With this in mind, I ask each ministry to prepare additional consumption promotion programs. Of course, there might be inflationary pressure as a result, but even when consumption coupons are not issued, prices often rise to an unacceptable degree under various pretexts. Therefore, I ask that you promptly and rigorously manage prices."

The livelihood recovery consumption coupons provide at least 150-thousand Korean won, or roughly 1 hundred 8 U.S. dollars, per recipient.

To prevent system congestion, the first week from Monday through Friday follows a day-of-the-week system based on the last digit of the applicant's birth year.

Weekend applications are only available online.

President Lee urged local governments to ensure that no eligible individuals are inadvertently missed, emphasizing the importance of minimizing any blind spots in distribution.

Additionally, to tighten oversight on secondhand coupon trades, the presidential office ordered local governments on Tuesday to strengthen monitoring of any second-hand transactions, while also appealing to the public for their active cooperation in the proper use of the consumption coupons.

Moon Ji-young, Arirang News.