“Uri Party Attempts to Control the Self-Governing Bodies”

Chung Se-gyoon, Uri Party’s policy committee director, said that the party will promote handing over property tax, formerly a local self-governing body’s income source, to the hands of the Seoul city government. The city and self-governing parties are strongly opposing this plan, saying that it goes against the principles of a self-government system.

A related official from the city government said, “The self-government system should give financial independence to each governing body, and the central government cannot simply take this away because it does not fit their national policies.” He added, “The problems with local taxation should be approached with long-term perspective. This idea is totally against the decentralization of the government.”

“The Gangnam district assembly created the regulation to exempt property tax by 50 percent because the tax rate will increase by four to five times according to the government’s new policy. We worked on relieving the tax burden on the district residents,” said a related official from the Gangnam district. “It’s as if the party in power is trying to kill the Gangnam district.”

Also included in the agreement with the district were many other self-governing districts who would benefit from the change. They, too, said that they cannot understand why this is being done.

“The taxes for land and buildings are used for the self-governing body’s funds, even abroad,” said an official from the Guro district, also in Seoul. “The leading party seems to want to control the self-governing bodies even it means violating the principles of taxation.”

This year, 25 self-governing districts in Seoul made approximately a trillion won income from taxation. The property tax income was 240 billion won, and the composite land tax income was 560 billion won, accounting for 24 percent of the whole property tax.

If the property tax is turned into the city government’s tax, the financial independence of the self-governing body will diminish from the current level of 50.3 percent, according to revenue officers.

The most financially independent district in Seoul is the Junggu district with 92.7 percent. The Gangbuk district, with 27.9 percent, is in 25th place. The Gangnam district was the third most financially independent body with 91.4 percent.

A revenue professor who requested anonymity stated, “The Roh government and the Uri Party have insisted on decentralization plans and equitable development of the local governments, but this action simply seems like they are interested in growing the power of the central government.”

The professor also added, “If they change the property tax to be part of national taxes or the city government’s through some law revisions, this is not only impractical but also likely to be met with opposition.”

Tae-Hun Hwang beetlez@donga.com