[이데일리 문승관 기자] The government has decided to eliminate the’dead zone’ so that there are no omissions for those who are eligible for electricity bill reduction or discount benefits, such as people with disabilities, basic beneficiaries, and people of national merit. The government estimates that about 550,000 to 800,000 households are the vulnerable (dead zones) who have not received a discount on electricity bills due to unapplication. If a monthly discount of 8,000 won to 16,000 won per household is applied, it is worth 88.2 billion won per year.
KEPCO, which collects electricity bills, will secure information on the socially caring class in advance and provide benefits for reductions. To this end, it was decided to prepare a legal basis for requesting data or information of persons subject to welfare discount to relevant ministries.
KEPCO does not have the authority to secure information on welfare discount recipients, so if a person who is eligible for welfare discount directly applies for a rate discount, KEPCO has reviewed the supporting documents and provided a reduction in exemption.
According to the government and the energy industry on the 21st, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy recently revised the’Electricity Business Act Enforcement Decree Partial Amendment Bill’ with the main goal of resolving the blind spot on the welfare discount on electricity bills, and it will take effect from April 21 next year.
Electricity bills can be reduced or exempted for facilities requiring reduction of electricity bills, such as national merit, basic recipients and the second-class, disabled, senior citizens, and social welfare facilities.
An official from the Ministry of Industry’s electricity market said, “There are a lot of households who do not know the discount benefits themselves, so that even though they are eligible, KEPCO plans to preemptively identify the target and eliminate the blind spot for welfare discounts.” “It is a partial revision of the enforcement decree so that KEPCO, an electricity sales business, can request data or information on people who are eligible for the welfare discount on electricity bills to relevant ministries and organizations.”
With this revision of the law, the next-level class and national merit set by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs and the Ministry of Public Administration and Security are all covered. Therefore, when KEPCO requests such information or data, the relevant ministries must provide the data on them.
Jeong Yeon-je, a research fellow at the Korea Energy Economics Institute, pointed out that it is a desirable direction for the government to discount electricity bills only for selected targets.
An official from the Ministry of Industry also said, “We expect that electricity sellers will be able to minimize the omission of application due to non-application for welfare discount by securing the qualification information of the person subject to welfare discount in advance.”
On the other hand, the government maintains the mandatory deduction for use, which is scheduled to be abolished in July 2022, for the vulnerable groups currently receiving discounts. It targets about 810,000 households and receives a discount of up to 4,000 won per household per month. The total discount amount is 13.9 billion won per year.
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