<Anchor>
The gas rate, which has already gone up once, will be raised again in one month.
Rate hikes are also scheduled for July and October, but electricity rates are expected to rise in the second half of the year.
This is reporter Jang Hoon-kyung.
<Reporter>
At a gomtang restaurant in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, the gas bill costs 4 million won per month because you have to brew the soup all day.
However, from tomorrow onwards, the fee will increase and you will have to pay an additional 350,000 won.
[CEO Jeong Sang-chae / Gomtang Specialty Store: All prices are going up for a bit, but even public charges like this…
(Distancing) It was relaxed and I was expecting it...
.]
It's only been a month since the gas rate went up on the 1st.
The range of increase is set at 8.4% to 9.4% depending on the use, but after some unit price adjustments, the monthly average will rise by 2,450 won per household.
Also, if the rate is raised by July and October, the average household will have to pay an additional 4,600 won.
In the meantime, despite the international gas price hike, the rate has been pushed down because of inflation, but when the deficit and receivables accumulated by KOGAS reached 1.8 trillion won as of the end of last year due to the fee being less than the import price, the rate was raised.
The possibility of an electricity rate hike came from the takeover committee.
[Park Joo-heon/Expert Member of Economics Division 2 of the Acquisition Committee: In the second half of the year, I think that the decision will be made based on costism rather than conventional practice by examining the international energy market situation.]
As the deficit continues to accumulate and the Bank of Korea forecasts that raw material prices may continue to rise even if the Ukraine crisis eases, pressure to raise rates is expected to increase.