Korea's SME minister promises an Onnuri voucher revamp within days

A shopper buys Onnuri vouchers below face value, and the discount rate sets how far below. The ministry's 2027 budget work had a cap of about 5% against a current 7% to 10%, taking the top of that subsidy down by half ^[6][4]. Run it over the basket the minister paid for at Motgol Market: 146,000 won of goods carries a 14,600 won discount at 10% and 7,300 won at 5%, a gap of 7,300 won on one afternoon's shopping ^[13][1]. The 900 billion won the same proposal weighed cutting from the issuance target works on volume, not rate ^[6]. Seoul Economic Daily's account does not give the total issuance target that 900 billion would come out of, so the cut cannot be stated as a share ^[18].

Lee's pledge, made at a tea meeting at the Nammun Market merchants' association in Suwon on the 23rd, was about where the benefit lands ^[3]. "There have been changes recently regarding Onnuri gift vouchers, and I believe more of the benefits should go to spending at traditional markets," she said ^[4]. She also said, "In the end, the ministry will make sure Onnuri gift vouchers can be used more at traditional markets" ^[7]. Seoul Economic Daily reported the remarks as a response to merchants' concerns that issuance and discount rates might be scaled back ^[2].

In the same outing she pledged to widen the range of places where the vouchers can be used ^[1]. The two promises draw on the same voucher spending, because an affiliate added outside a traditional market is somewhere the voucher can go instead.

The concrete ask came from Lee Chung-hwan, chairman of the Korea Federation of Merchants Associations, on the holiday rebate events tied to the vouchers. "Because the rebates are limited to agricultural, livestock and fisheries products, there is considerable frustration among merchants who receive no benefit," he said, and asked the ministry to design events "not confined to specific items or business types" ^[11][12]. The programs belong to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries; Lee said they "have been somewhat separate from our ministry's policies," and that she would consult the two ministries and "oversee it myself" ^[9][10].

At Wooil Sanghoe she paid with a mobile Onnuri voucher and asked the merchant how it worked, saying, "I haven't used the mobile version yet" ^[15]. The eight itemised purchases in the report add to exactly the 146,000 won total, and the goods go to children at a local community childcare center ^[2][13].

Two readings fit what was said. In the first, the 900 billion won cut stays in the 2027 proposal and the revamp moves a smaller pot toward stalls, a change in composition that costs nothing to announce. In the second, the changes Lee referred to mean the cut is already gone inside the ministry and the plan will confirm it ^[4]. I would expect composition to move first and the issuance line to be settled later, since the ministry weighed the 900 billion won cut and the 5% cap in the same budget proposal ^[6]. What settles it is whether the plan due within days puts a number on issuance and on the discount rate ^[5].