South Korea to double energy vouchers amid soaring bills, cold wave

SEOUL – South Korea plans to double energy vouchers and a discount of gas prices for underprivileged families to cope with spiralling heating bills amid a prolonged cold wave, officials said on Thursday.

Countries around the world have faced rising energy costs in the face of a global surge in natural gas and heating fuel prices resulting from the conflict in Ukraine.

Many South Korean households began to feel the impact in recent weeks after turning up the heat amid a cold spell.

Monthly gas bills were up 34 per cent last month from a year ago, according to Statistics Korea.

Mr Choi Sang-mok, South Korea’s top presidential economic secretary, said the increase in bills is inevitable, citing a near tenfold growth in global natural gas prices since 2021.

However, South Korean rates are still far lower than the levels in many other advanced countries.

The measures would benefit almost 1.2 million families receiving energy vouchers and around 1.6 million homes eligible for the gas discount this winter, in a country of 21.6 million households, Mr Choi said.

“There is an inevitable aspect of realising energy prices under these difficult external circumstances,” he told a briefing. “But we will make maximum policy efforts to minimise the burden on the people.”

Many South Koreans have expressed concerns over additional hikes in energy bills as the freezing winter weather continues.

“Our heating bills have gone up about 50 per cent from previous years,” said Mr Lim Jong-cheol, a Seoul resident who said he and his wife have fixed incomes and are trying to cut back on expenses like eating out.

Ms Bang Myung-soon, 76, who has been running a small hardware store in Seoul, said she was “shocked” by the hike in heating bills and that government subsidies would not be enough for her.

“At home, I wear many clothes, a hat, gloves and anything that can keep me warm, but I can’t turn down the heat here because of customers,” she told Reuters from her store, sitting on a heated pad.

The weather agency issued a heavy snow advisory on Thursday in the greater Seoul area and some eastern and central regions, prompting at least five flights to be called off and several national parks to shut down as at 11am (10am Singapore time), according to the Interior Ministry.

The warning came just days after nearly 500 flights to and from the tourist island of Jeju were cancelled due to harsh weather, disrupting the Lunar New Year holiday for many. REUTERS