Gov¡¯t considers imposing no-driving days

The government has revealed it is looking carefully into the possibility of forcing motorists to keep their cars parked one day out of 10. The government also plans to increase drastically the special budget for energy in order to meet with today¡¯s high oil prices.

The proposals resulted from a meeting with the prime minister and other economy-related ministers attending.

"Although the forced non-running of cars one day out of ten has only been implemented for governmental offices of the central and regional administrations, we are looking into ways to provide incentives but also enforce the measure in the general public, Shin Kook-Hwan ¡°, Minister of Commerce Industry and Energy, said on September 13.

Shin added that the government was examining the related laws and implementation methods for the proposed measure.

"Currently, in order to increase the special budget for energy and resource industry from the current amount of 1.7 trillion won, we are considering assessing an incidental tax on imported crude oil," Shin said.

Meanwhile, in the United States, President Bill Clinton revealed his administration was examining some emergency measures to deal with the rising crude oil prices. Clinton said that the nation¡¯s strategic oil reserve would be released in the market. He further said that his government would do its utmost to obtain a reserve for winter heating by October.