Cabinet approves extension of LPG tax cut; Lee orders bolder oil price cap

The government said Tuesday that the Cabinet approved an amendment to the enforcement decree of the Individual Consumption Tax Act, extending by one month — through the end of July — a temporary reduction in the flexible tax rate on liquefied petroleum gas and butane.

Cheong Wa Dae chief spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a written briefing that the closed session reviewed and approved 46 presidential decree proposals and three general agenda items. Among the measures passed, 23 were directly tied to the Lee Jae Myung administration's policy agenda, including an amendment to the Korea Fair Trade Commission's organizational decree that would increase the number of investigators handling monopoly and unfair trade cases.

President Lee also directed officials to take steps to ease the burden on ordinary households from rising prices driven by the fallout of the war in the Middle East.

"With a tax revenue surplus expected, cutting fuel taxes would not place a significant strain on public finances and would help expand ordinary people's spending capacity," Lee said. "Let's be bolder — keep the oil price ceiling in place a bit longer and also bring the ceiling price down a notch." He added that income support measures needed to be studied, given high inflation and deepening inequality.

Turning to Han Seong-suk, the minister of SMEs and Startups and nominee for prime minister, Lee asked whether the scale and intensity of startup support should be raised, noting that if advanced industries are not generating jobs, the focus must ultimately shift to entrepreneurship.

Lee also said that one way to deploy the surplus tax revenue toward securing growth potential was to improve the startup environment. "Expanding startups will be far easier to do as prime minister than as SME minister," he said.

Lee then turned to the Youth Future Savings program, which launched the previous day, and closely questioned Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eok-won and Ministry of Planning and Budget Minister Park Hong-keun about eligibility requirements and the budget situation. He directed them to process all applicants who meet the criteria and apply within the two-week sign-up window, adding that a supplementary budget should be drawn up if necessary.

Kang said that after the meeting moved into closed session, the Ministry of Interior and Safety's honors proposal was approved. The proposal covers 7,284 recipients across 17 categories, including a posthumous decoration for the late Lt. Col. Kim O-rang, who was killed in action while resisting the Dec. 12 mutiny.