Democratic Party calls for easing public institution vehicle restrictions amid oil supply crunch

The Democratic Party of Korea on Wednesday formally asked the government to consider easing the current alternate-day vehicle restrictions for public institutions — imposed as part of the response to the oil supply crisis — from a two-day rotation to a five-day rotation.

Yoo Dong-su, a Democratic Party lawmaker and chairman of the party's special committee on economic response to the Middle East war, raised the proposal at a meeting with government officials at the National Assembly on Wednesday morning. "The oil supply situation is approaching nearly 90 percent," Yoo said. "I hope the relevant ministries will discuss whether the two-day vehicle rotation can be made more flexible by switching to a five-day system."

An Do-geol, the committee's secretary, told reporters after the party-government meeting that the government had been formally asked to review the proposal. "We have requested that the relevant ministries examine the matter and report back to us in due course," An said.

The party and government also signaled emergency measures to stabilize consumer prices. An said the government would soon announce emergency tariff quota measures for the second half of the year to expand imports of key agricultural, livestock and food raw materials, adding that related policies would be fully incorporated into the government's second-half economic policy direction.

A review of supplementary budget execution for crisis response found that 70 percent — 7.4 trillion won — of the 10.5 trillion won ($6.92 billion) under management had been disbursed as of the end of May, surpassing the original target of 66 percent. For key raw materials, more than 85 percent of planned oil and naphtha imports for June and July have already been secured, leaving supply on stable footing.

Support for small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners hit by the prolonged Middle East war is also proceeding on track. Logistics vouchers worth 35 billion won and export vouchers worth 134.6 billion won have been fully distributed. In addition, 198.8 billion won in business stabilization loans for SMEs, 77.9 billion won for small business owners, and 488.4 billion won in special loan guarantees have all been disbursed without disruption.