전기요금, 7~8월에만 누진구간 한시적 확대키로

South Korea plans to adopt a new electricity billing system starting next month to help reduce the burden on households for the peak summer months.
Yoon Jung-min has the details.
The new electricity billing system will put more people in the lower two of the billing rates by raising the cutoff for the third and most expensive rate.
That'll be in effect from July through August.
Currently, South Korean households are billed for electricity at three different rates the heaviest users paying three times more per unit than the lowest users.
The higher cutoff is expected to benefit more than 16 million households, whose bills will be lowered by about nine U.S. dollars a month.
On Tuesday, the trade ministry chose the new system from among three proposals that had been discussed since last December. The need for a change became clear last summer... when the country's household electricity use hit a record high due to extreme heat, and many were shocked at their power bills.
The other two plans were to adopt either a two-rate system in summer... or a flat-rate system throughout the year.
But it was felt those systems might favor some particular households rather than benefit as many as possible.
The Korea Electric Power Corporation will draft the official revision and submit it for government approval.
Once that's done, the new system will come into effect next month.
Yoon Jung-min, Arirang News.