National Allotment Close to Four Million Won

The amount of money each person paid to the government last year, including tax, national pension, and health insurance, approached four million won per capita, the highest in record.

Per capita allotment of economically active population exceeded eight million won for the first time in the history.

According to “The Yearly Changes of National Allotment” published on Monday by the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the total share paid by people last year recorded 183.7 trillion won (25.5 percent of GDP 721.3 trillion,), including 147.8 trillion won of tax and 35.9 trillion won of social security contributions such as national pension and health insurance.

Per capita allotment increased to 3,833,000 won, up by 9.4 percent from the pervious year and 74.1 percent up from 1998, the year right after the foreign exchange crisis.

Per capita allotment of economically active population (22,916,000) last year was 8,016,000 won, a 9.8 percent increase from the 7,300,000 won of the previous year.

In regard to GDP, the share of per capita allotment has steadily increased each year to 21.1 percent (2,202,000 won) in 1998, 21.5 percent (2,441,000 won) in 1999, and 24.4 percent (3,505,000 won) in 2002.

It is analyzed that such an increase has been caused by larger payment of national pension due to increased number of pension contributors as well as a hike in health insurance fees.

In fact, the social security contribution such as national pension and health insurance has shown two-digit growth every year since 2000.

Although last year’s national allotment (25.5 percent) is not quite as high as the U.S. (29.6 percent in 2000) and the U.K. (37.4 percent in 2001), it is already closely approaching Japan’s 27.1 percent (in 2000).

Jong sik Kong kong@donga.com