Press Release No. 490, Issued on 1 Sep. 2005

Green Consumer Network
   - 2nd Brand Rice Taste Evaluation Competition with Consumer Participation

Seoul YMCA Citizens’ Mediation Center
   - Seoul YMCA Citizens’ Mediation Center Comments on 8.31 Comprehensive Real
     Estate Measures

Green Consumer Network

2nd Brand Rice Taste Evaluation Competition with Consumer Participation
90 consumers attended competition held at Seoul YMCA auditorium

The Green Consumer Network and 9 other consumer organizations belonging to the Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations performed a promotion and evaluation service of brand rice together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The Green Consumer Network conducted the 2nd Brand Rice Taste Evaluation with 90 consumers at the YWCA Myung-dong auditorium on August 27 (Sat.) following the 1st Brand Rice Taste Evaluation held in June, taking up the project of evaluating Korean rice quality and taste with consumer participation.
The brand rice evaluation project has continued for three years since 2003. Extensive efforts were made to ensure that this year’s rice taste evaluation is more objective by forming evaluation panels composed of persons of varying ages.
The current evaluation results will be announced through a comprehensive brand rice evaluation meeting at the aT Center on September 7 (Wed.) after obtaining the final scores by compiling the results of a quality evaluation conducted by four expert organizations, rice taste evaluation and species research by experts, and the 1st consumers’ rice taste evaluation hosted by this Network.  

▶ Contact: Green Consumer Network (02-3273-7117)

Seoul YMCA Citizens’ Mediation Center

Seoul YMCA Citizens’ Mediation Center Comments on 8.31 Comprehensive Real Estate Measures

- The principle of stronger taxation has been maintained in general but thorough follow-up action is required, including an increase in tax base rates
- Control measures such as sale price reduction are missing, causing problems while concentrating on extended supply

8.31 Comprehensive Real Estate Measures were announced amid great public concern, as they were prepared based on the government’s official commitment to making an ‘everlasting real estate policy that will be steadily implemented by ensuing administrations’.
It appears that the current 8.31 real estate measures reflect to some extent the government’s intentions to greatly increase real estate tax rates, such as ownership and transfer taxes. The original principles have been maintained, including the policy direction of strengthening taxation through higher ownership taxes, heavier transfer tax rates, and the rationalization of transaction taxes. If the government is to maintain its policy of imposing heavier transfer rates on multiple home owners and increasing the effective ownership tax rate by 1% or higher, it is important that the core elements of the 8.31 measures - △ to recollect unearned income by levying heavier transfer rates on multiple home owners and △ to increase the effective ownership tax rate by more than 1% by increasing the tax base of deluxe home owners ? are imposed. The success of the new policy measures depends on specific follow-up actions, including an increase in tax base rates. The government will have to implement follow-up measures thoroughly, by maintaining the principle of taxation strictly based on real transaction value in connection with heavier taxation on multiple home owners and by raising the tax base application rate up to 100% by 2009 in order to fully implement an effective ownership tax of 1% or higher.

However, the measures do not include schemes to control over-inflated sale prices of apartment houses, while the government emphasized its policy of supplying an increased volume of apartment houses in Kangnam and other Seoul metropolitan areas. Therefore, it is feared that the current government measures may result in such side effects as the ‘2nd Pangyo Syndrome’ or the eventual expansion of the Kangnam-zone belt. The government hurriedly announced its policy of supplying more apartment houses as it holds speculative demand responsible for the excessively inflated apartment house prices. However, such a hurried policy will adversely affect the consistency of the government’s policies. Furthermore, we cannot exclude the possibility that it may become a further catalyst to inflated real estate prices in the areas concerned. It is also a serious defect of the new measures that they do not include schemes to lower apartment house sale prices or adequately control them while the government concentrates on the extended supply of apartment houses. The government will have to develop such complementary measures as the disclosure of sale price cost breakdown.

▶ Contact: Min Tae-sik and Kim Hui-kyeong, Secretary (02-725-1400)