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| Newly elected Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, left, speaks with a quarantine official at a makeshift coronavirus testing clinic at Seoul Station, Saturday. Yonhap |
By Bahk Eun-ji
New Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who took office right after Wednesday's by-elections, is seeking to change the central government's quarantine and real estate policies, which many of the public are unhappy with.
After visiting a temporary screening center for COVID-19 at Seoul Station, Saturday, Oh said he would review the increased rate of government-assessed home valuations to prevent housing prices from soaring further.
"The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has no authority to adjust the state assessment price, but I believe that it is possible to prevent the price from rising sharply anymore via cooperation with the central government," he noted.
The government usually taxes land and homes based on its annual assessment value instead of the actual market value.
"As preparatory work ahead of consulting with the central government, I need to find grounds to freeze the government-set home prices," Oh said.
During his election campaign, Oh vowed to freeze the government-set home prices next year, saying that the increase rate for this year announced by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport last month was too high.
This year, the average increase in the official price of apartments nationwide was 19.08 percent, and 19.91 percent in Seoul.
Commenting on the central government's refutation of the results of a re-examination of publicly announced real estate prices released by the Seocho District Office and Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Government, Oh said, "We need to discuss this further with the central government, but it is really not desirable to increase the tax burden too much."
"I am hoping that the central government will not be able to reject this if it makes a suggestion based on a proper re-examination."
Oh also said the rapid increase in the government-appraised prices of property has a flow on effect to taxation resulting in various tax hikes including increased health insurance premiums. He asserted that since the SMG has raised the issue, the government should clarify its position on the matter.
Regarding the decision of the city government to follow the social distancing measures such as the ban on the operation of entertainment facilities announced by the central government the day before, he said since COVID-19 is spreading so quickly with few signs of slowing down, following the government's measures would be the best way to ease citizens' worries about quarantine matters.
On the previous day, Oh said he would come up with local government quarantine guidelines, criticizing the current social distancing measures for harming the self-employed and small business owners.
"The city government is preparing a separate quarantine manual for each type of business. We will prepare them as soon as possible this week so that tangible results can be seen early next week," Oh added.
