PPP Slams Tax Reform as 'Tax Extortion' While DP Monitors Public Sentiment

[Anchor]

Let us take a look at the political reactions to the latest tax reform proposals. The People Power Party strongly criticized the plan, arguing that it essentially amounts to collecting more taxes. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has yet to release an official statement, appearing to carefully gauge public opinion.

Reporter Park Chan-beom has the details.

[Reporter]

The People Power Party harshly dismissed the government's tax reform package as the "worst in history," claiming that it only increases the total tax burden on citizens.

Leader Jang Dong-hyeok criticized it as "tax extortion to reclaim the money already distributed," while People Power Party members of the National Assembly's Strategy and Finance Committee denounced it as a "tax reform of heavy taxation and extortion," drawing on a historical term for harsh extraction of people's wealth.

[Bae Jun-young / People Power Party Secretary for the Strategy and Finance Committee: The government, which is collecting the largest-ever excess tax revenue thanks to the semiconductor boom, is instead planning to collect 3.4 trillion won more in taxpayers' money. In short, it is a 'shut up and pay taxes' policy.]

The People Power Party predicted that the measures to strengthen the comprehensive real estate holding tax on multi-home owners and non-resident single-home owners will cause the most severe side effects, warning that the tax burden will be passed on to tenants and lead to higher lease deposits and rents.

In particular, they argued that including non-resident single-home owners in the tightened comprehensive real estate tax targets suppresses even the freedom of movement for single-home owners.

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The Democratic Party did not issue a separate official commentary today (August 3) following the announcement of the reform plan, but the floor leadership is scheduled to announce its stance tomorrow.

A Democratic Party leadership official told SBS, "Since tax reform is a sensitive issue, we are carefully discussing our official stance today."

It appears they are finalizing their position while observing public sentiment trends regarding the reform package.

[Kang Jun-hyun / Senior Spokesperson for the Democratic Party: The party leadership has decided to closely examine people's livelihoods, the asset market, and real estate issues, and focus on preparing alternatives.]

Both rival parties are on edge, recognizing that public sentiment regarding this real estate tax reform is a critical variable not only for dominance in domestic politics, but also for upcoming elections.

(Video取材: Lee Seung-hwan and Shin Dong-hwan, Video Editing: Lee Seung-hee)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.