<Anchor> This is a



friendly economic time. Reporter Kim Hye-min is also here today (27th). Reporter Kim The electricity bill went up a while ago. By the way, other than electricity rates, other utility rates are showing signs of going up?



<Reporter> The



first thing being considered is the city gas rate. The wholesale price of KOGAS is determined according to the cost of raw materials, and this raw material is LNG. LNG prices are currently rising at the fastest rate in history.



After the government cut city gas rates once in July last year, it has been frozen for 15 months due to the corona situation.



KOGAS expects its receivables to grow to 1.5 trillion won by the end of the year. So, in November of this year, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy delivered a request to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance to raise city gas rates.



Although the Ministry of Strategy and Finance is preventing rate hikes right away due to the burden of inflation, the increased receivables become an interest burden for KOGAS, and eventually, it will have to be reflected in the gas rate someday.



<Anchor>



There is a possibility that city gas will also rise. Then you said that in addition to city gas, railroad tolls and highway tolls could also go up?



<Reporter> The



Korea Railroad Corporation has come forward to demand that railroad fares be raised. Rail fares rose by 3% in 2011, and have been frozen for 10 years since then.



However, as the number of users decreased due to COVID-19, the railway corporation posted a deficit of more than 1.3 trillion won last year.



The deficit is expected to exceed 1.1 trillion won this year. In addition, the Korea Railroad Corporation believes that compensation for 'public service obligations' intensifies the deficit structure.



'Obligation for public service' is a policy of discounting railroad fares to the elderly or students or maintaining deficit routes and deficit stations, and the government compensates for some of the costs.



However, the government compensation amount is only 76% of the cost invested by the railway corporation. So the deficit gets worse.



In addition, the Korea Expressway Corporation is also known to propose an increase in highway tolls to the government. Expressway tolls have not risen for six years after raising them by 4.7% in 2015.



So, while tolls are stagnant at the level of 4 trillion won per year, tolls that are reduced or exempted are on the rise.



<Anchor>



So, the government is asking for a rate increase because public institutions continue to accumulate deficits. Regarding the government fee we talked about at the beginning, there are parts that we don't know but there are parts that go up.



 <Reporter> The



government recently raised electricity rates once. Because the fuel cost has risen, the fuel cost adjustment fee has been raised accordingly.



These days, there are many automatic debits for electricity bills, so there are not many people who directly check their bills, but in fact, from this year on, climate environment bills have been charged separately as a separate item on the bill.



This is the amount that KEPCO charges electricity consumers to reduce environmental pollution impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions.



Since it is a method of calculating the actual expenses incurred in the previous year and collecting them in the following year, the next year's fee will be set in December of this year.



As KEPCO invested more than 1.7 trillion won, or 70% of last year, for climate and environmental costs in the first half of this year alone, it is predicted that this rate will be higher next year than this year.



In addition, local public charges such as public transportation rates and water and sewerage rates are waiting for an increase one after another. The price of the volume-based garbage bag is also expected to rise.



<Anchor>



Listening to reporter Kim today, I don't think there's anything that doesn't really rise. But did the government talk about the first half of this year? In the second half of the year, it was announced that it would keep the price level at 2%, but from the government's point of view, it will not be easy to manage inflation in the second half.



<Reporter> In



fact, public rates have not risen compared to the overall consumer price index. So it has been playing a role in stabilizing prices relatively, but as it has been frozen for a long time and the deficit of public institutions has grown, there is a lot of pressure to raise it recently.



If the COVID-19 situation calms down to some extent, it is highly likely that there will be no choice but to raise dominoes.

However, if that happens, it is predicted that the annual 'consumer price increase' will rise significantly.



The government's forecast for inflation this year in June was 1.8%.

However, as of August of this year, the rate of increase has already been recorded at 2%.



Although it is now inevitable that public rates, which have been frozen for a long time due to COVID-19, need to be raised, the cost of living is already increasing at an uncontrollable and fast pace.