People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok calls on President Lee to exercise his veto power over a revision to the Criminal Procedure Act at a field supreme council meeting held in front of Cheong Wa Dae's Sarangchae on Monday. [Yonhap]
People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok calls on President Lee to exercise his veto power over a revision to the Criminal Procedure Act at a field supreme council meeting held in front of Cheong Wa Dae's Sarangchae on Monday. [Yonhap]

The People Power Party on Monday strongly pushed back against the government's tax reform package, which includes hikes to real estate holding and transaction taxes.

Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok took to Facebook immediately after the government announced the plan, saying President Lee Jae-myung had "dropped a tax bomb the moment he returned to the country." Jang said the plan was dressed up in talk of "tax reform for fair taxation" but was in reality "tax robbery — taking back money that was already handed out."

Jang went on to say that while raising the real estate holding tax was something the president had committed to, "abolishing the tax credit for low birth rate response, cutting support for eco-friendly vehicles, and tightening the threshold for business succession are in double and triple conflict with this government's own policies."

Earlier, PPP members of the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Planning Committee held a press conference at the Assembly, saying the government had "only added burdens" when it should be helping people struggling under high prices, a weak won and high interest rates. They called it "the worst tax reform package in history."

According to materials distributed that day, the reform would revise 115 of 241 tax expenditure items and convert 17 others to direct fiscal support.

Regarding the overall package, the committee members were particularly critical, saying a government collecting record surplus tax revenue on the back of a semiconductor boom was instead seeking to extract an additional 3.4 trillion won ($2.37 billion) from taxpayers. "In a word: shut up and pay your taxes," they said.


forest@heraldcorp.com