Parties study political fund plan

The ruling and opposition parties have started weighing Deputy Prime Minister Jin Nyum's Friday proposal that 1 percent of corporate taxes be used for political activities if politicians will agree not to receive other funds from businesses and allow the elections to be publicly managed.

In answer to the recent declaration of the Federation of Korean Industries that it would refuse to give out any questionable funds to politicians, Mr. Jin proposed to lower the tax by 1 percent from the present average rate of 22 or 23 percent, and have the money used for political funds.

Mr. Jin said, "Should the elections be publicly run, we could prevent scandals concerning political funds like the 'gates' we are seeing now."

The deputy minister emphasized that determination on the part of politicians to eschew fishy political funds would be the prerequisite. He added that he would explore whether the system could be tested for four years.

The corporate tax collected by the government last year amounted to just under 17 trillion won ($12.8 billion). One percent of that is 170 billion won, but estimates are that perhaps 70 billion to 80 billion a year would flow into political use, as the companies would retain some discretion over how to use the money saved from their taxes.

Two party spokesmen, Nam Kyong-phil of the Grand National Party and Chung Jin-suk of the United Liberal Democrats, welcomed the proposal as a necessary step for the transparency and soundness of political fund raising.

Lee Nak-yon, Millennium Democratic spokesman, said, however, "We would like to hold any comments on the plan for now, as we do not know yet the way these funds will be requested from the businesses or how the public will react to the plan." Mr. Lee called for the matter to be discussed by the National Assembly's Special Committee on Political Reform. The committee has reportedly already started to examine the issue.

Lee Phil-sang, a professor at the Korea University Business School, said public support for the plan would not come easily without absolute confidence that this money would be used for funding of clean and transparent elections.

by Lee Sang-il