Opposition to mull extending cut in real estate acquisition tax

Woo Won-shik, chief floor leader of the main opposition Democratic United Party, told reporters Sunday, “We will boldly shift our stance to proactively consider extending the reduction in the real estate acquisition tax in this month’s extraordinary session of the National Assembly if it helps revive land transactions.”

A reduction of the tax was taken up by the government in September last year to shore up the real estate market, but ended at the end of last month. As the main opposition party is trying to follow the ruling Saenuri Party`s push to extend the tax benefit, chances are high that a bill on an extension will pass in this month’s extraordinary parliamentary session slated to run Jan. 15-21.

On Wednesday, ruling party floor leader Lee Han-koo said his party will seek to extend the reduction of the tax. An extension was a campaign pledge of both President-elect Park Geun-hye and Democratic United Party presidential hopeful Moon Jae-in.

In a related move, Lee told The Dong-A Ilbo over the phone Sunday, “Even before the opening of the extraordinary parliamentary session, we will start discussing the measure at the parliamentary standing committee concerned (government administration and public security committee).”

The key issue is how long to extend the cut in the real estate acquisition tax. If the extension is one year, tax revenues of municipal and provincial governments will decline 2.9 trillion won (2.7 billion U.S. dollars).

Also in the upcoming extraordinary session, the ruling party wants priority deliberation on a bill to revise the Act on the Organizational Structure of the Government in the wake of the Feb. 24 inauguration of the Park Geun-hye administration.

The main opposition party is demanding parliamentary inspections into a violent protest at Ssangyong Motors, which resulted in the deaths of ex-workers who had been laid off in the course of restructuring, and the withdrawal of the nomination of Lee Dong-heup as Constitutional Court chief justice. Thus the rival parties are poised to lock horns again.