Gyeonggi Province Has Highest Tax Burden but Lowest Social Welfare Spending

It has been claimed that while Gyeonggi Province has the highest tax burden among provincial-level local governments nationwide, it has the lowest social security spending.

On the 6th, the Gyeonggi Citizens' Coalition for Social Welfare released a report titled "Gyeonggi Province Welfare Budget from the Perspective of Gyeonggi Citizens," based on a survey of nine provincial local governments nationwide including Gangwon, Gyeonggi, South Gyeongsang, North Gyeongsang, South Jeolla, North Jeolla, Jeju, South Chungcheong, and North Chungcheong provinces.

According to the report, last year's per capita local tax burden in Gyeonggi Province was 484,500 won, the highest among the provinces surveyed, followed by Jeju at 434,000 won and South Gyeongsang at 278,000 won, while South Jeolla recorded the lowest at 160,000 won.

In contrast, per capita social security spending during the same period was 224,000 won for both South Jeolla and Jeju, followed by North Jeolla at 215,000 won, while Gyeonggi recorded the lowest at 80,000 won, falling below the average of 163,000 won across the nine provinces.

The Citizens' Coalition also pointed out that Gyeonggi Province is implementing a semi-universal education support policy, concentrating budgets in specific areas such as investing approximately 346.3 billion won in English village projects, thereby providing benefits to only certain segments of the population.