[Anchor]

The city of Incheon has decided to completely suspend the cashback service for its local currency, Incheon e-Eum, starting this week. The city cited the depletion of this year's allocated budget as the reason. This marks the first time since the program's inception seven years ago that cashback payments have been halted.

Reporter Song In-ho has the story.

[Reporter]

This is a bakery cafe in Incheon.

A notice is posted stating that customers will receive a 20% cashback on their purchases if they pay with the local currency, Incheon e-Eum, through this month.

Back in April, less than two months before the June 3 local elections, former Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok compiled a supplementary budget to boost the local economy, which was struggling with high oil prices. As a result, the cashback rate and monthly limit were increased for three months, from May through this month.

Thanks to this, the use of local currency increased, leading to higher sales for self-employed individuals and small business owners.

[Interview: Kim Hyung-pyo / Bakery Cafe Owner: As the cashback rate increased to 20% in May, June, and July, the usage of the e-Eum card has increased quite a bit. Much more than usual...]

However, the cashback benefits for the e-Eum card are now facing suspension starting July 16.

This means that not only will the 20% cashback rate, which was set to last until the end of this month, be discontinued, but the standard 10% cashback will also be unavailable.

Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae held an emergency press conference and announced that although this year's Incheon e-Eum budget was increased by 100 billion won compared to last year, the budget is expected to be fully exhausted this week, making the total suspension of cashback benefits unavoidable.

He attributed the depletion of the e-Eum card budget to the previous administration.

[Interview: Park Chan-dae / Mayor of Incheon: To continue the cashback program as it is now, we would have no choice but to take on debt for the remainder of the second half of the year. This is the result of the previous city government expanding the program excessively without preparing the necessary budget.]

The 100-day emergency public livelihood recovery plan, which was a key campaign promise of Mayor Park during the June 3 local elections, has also been postponed.

[Interview: Park Chan-dae / Mayor of Incheon: This is because rebuilding the foundation of our collapsed finances must come first. I am deeply sorry that I cannot immediately keep the promise I made upon taking office.]

Mayor Park stated that he would begin full-scale structural reforms to normalize the city's finances while doing his best to ensure that the Incheon e-Eum program can be resumed as soon as possible.

(Video reporting: Lim Dong-guk)