Fire safety grant tax set to fall 27.6% next year

National-local cost-sharing framework needs overhaul

Finance ministry's 10 objections to future fund ignored

Ministry of Planning and Budget Minister Park Hong-keun said Friday that securing stable funding for fire safety would require gathering input from the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the National Fire Agency and local governments to identify what can be reflected in next year's budget and what requires longer-term structural reform.

Park made the remarks at a comprehensive national audit of the National Assembly's Finance and Economy Planning Committee, responding to Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Jeong Tae-ho, who raised concerns about structural problems in fire service financing.

Ministry of Planning and Budget Minister Park Hong-keun [Yonhap]
Ministry of Planning and Budget Minister Park Hong-keun [Yonhap]

According to Jeong, the national government's share of fire safety spending has fallen from 14.9 percent in 2021 to 10.7 percent this year, while the local government share has risen from 85 percent to 89.3 percent. The trend runs counter to the 2020 transfer of firefighters to national civil servant status, which was expected to shift more of the financial burden to the central government.

The fire safety grant tax, funded by tobacco excise revenues, is projected to drop 27.6 percent — from 1.05 trillion won ($793 million) this year to 760.5 billion won next year. Personnel costs as a share of the fire safety budget have also climbed from 71 percent in 2022 to around 76 percent, while the share going to facility expansion and equipment upgrades has fallen from 28.7 percent to 24.2 percent. Declining tobacco consumption is shrinking the revenue base even as the firefighter workforce and wage costs grow, placing an increasing burden on local governments.

Park said discussions are needed on "what principles and standards should govern the division of responsibilities between the national and local governments." He identified improving firefighters' working conditions, expanding advanced safety equipment and securing stable fire service funding as key priorities, pledging to "work together with the National Assembly to develop more effective measures."

The audit also surfaced controversy over what critics called the "Ministry of Finance and Economy bypass" — allegations that the ministry had been shut out of the process of establishing the Future Response Fund.

Park said the fund-related legislation was submitted to the National Assembly after both ministries agreed to continue consultations during the parliamentary review stage. On whether the two ministers had formally agreed, he said the arrangement was "more of a working-level coordination than a formal agreement between the two ministers."

People Power Party lawmaker Park Soo-young said the Ministry of Finance and Economy had on Aug. 27 requested the deletion of seven clauses from the Future Response Fund Act and revisions to three clauses of an amendment to the National Finance Act, but the Ministry of Planning and Budget had not incorporated any of those requests. Park also took issue with the finance minister's absence from two ruling party-government consultations on the Future Response Fund.

"Both in substance and in procedure, the Ministry of Finance and Economy is being completely bypassed," Park said. "It is incomprehensible that not a single word of the deputy prime minister for economic affairs' opinion was reflected."

The shortened public notice period for the Future Response Fund Act — cut from the standard 40 days to just five — also drew criticism. Park acknowledged the notice period was brief but said the ministry had consulted with the Ministry of Government Legislation and relied on a provision allowing exceptions when necessary.

He added that the legislation was tied to the budget, forcing the ministry to concentrate work in late August to meet the budget submission deadline. He said the Ministry of Finance and Economy submitted its comments on the final day of the interministerial consultation period, after which a weekend intervened before a Cabinet meeting scheduled for Sept. 1.


y2k@heraldcorp.com