A Special Financial Reform Committee has been launched in Korea to build public consensus on tax reform and government spending.
On Tuesday, the team unveiled plans that reflect the opinion of citizens and experts to make the tax system fairer for all... and to ensure public money is spent efficiently,... and perhaps more importantly,... in the right places.
Won Jung-hwan reports.

The Special Financial Reform Committee held a second general meeting on Tuesday to submit their recommendations for tax reform.
The committee’s goal is to improve income redistribution and financial efficiency through taxation and fiscal reform,… and raise the transparency and accountability of government spending.
Regarding tax reform,… the committee has included real estate, financial income, housing, and environment related individual consumption as their criteria for the proposal recommendation.

For real estate tax reform, they proposed raising the fair market value ratio by 5-percentage points annually for 4 years and increasing housing property tax by up to 2-point-5-percent, based on the rise in real estate prices.

The committee says, if this final proposal passes,.... 346-thousand people those who have housing and land property will be affected, and additional tax revenue of nearly 900-million U.S. dollar is likely to be added next year.

The committee also raised the need to reform energy taxes for a sustainable future and for the public's health.
They have proposed to increase the individual consumption tax for the use of bituminous coal to 36 won per kilogram of coal.

If the tax rates are adjusted in the administration's final plan which will be released in late July, they will need to be passed by the National Assembly in September to come into effect.
Won Jung-hwan, Arirang News.