Kim Min-seok draws a line at calls to ease the comprehensive real estate tax, reaffirms ‘one team’ unity between the ruling party and the presidential office

Financial News] Kim Min-seok, leader of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), said on the 12th that he would draw a line at calls for further easing of the basic deduction for the comprehensive real estate tax and maintain the existing principles of real estate policy. 
Kim appeared on ‘Democratic Party TV’ that morning and, when asked whether the tax had been discussed at dinner with President Lee the previous day, stressed, “It has already been settled that it is best to consistently uphold the fundamentals of the real estate policy being pursued by the ruling party and the government, so there was no separate discussion of it.”
Earlier, the government drew up a plan to raise the basic deduction for owners of a single home who do not live in it from 900 million won to 1.2 billion won. However, at the Senior Party-Government Council on the 8th, calls for further easing were raised, led by lawmakers from Seoul and the capital region, who argued that the deduction threshold should be aligned with the 1.4 billion won applied to owners who live in their single home. 
Kim pushed back, saying that remarks made while briefing that some lawmakers held this view had been mistaken for and misunderstood as an official proposal from the party. 
In addition, Kim said he would pursue a meeting attended by President Lee and all DPK lawmakers to strengthen communication between the party and the presidential office. He said he had asked President Lee at dinner the previous day to meet more often with ruling party lawmakers, and explained, “We had originally planned to hold a meeting of all lawmakers at Cheong Wa Dae, but kept being unable to do so. It looks like we may hold one soon if we can.”

[email protected] Jiwon Song Reporter