Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik: 'Use Surplus Semiconductor Tax Revenue for a Future Response Fund'
Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik said in an interview that the government is pursuing a new 'Future Response Fund,' financed by surplus corporate tax revenue generated by the semiconductor boom, to invest in power and water infrastructure for semiconductor clusters.
The context is that Korea's central government budget runs around 700 trillion won a year, with expected tax revenue budgeted in advance at the start of the year. Samsung Electronics alone is now expected to post second-quarter operating profit anywhere from around 90 trillion won up to as much as 110 trillion won, far exceeding original forecasts — and with semiconductor firms broadly outperforming, an unusually large surplus in corporate tax revenue is expected that ordinary budget planning never anticipated. The hosts explained that rather than folding this kind of extraordinary surplus into the general budget as usual, setting it aside for a designated purpose only is exactly what a 'fund' is for. Korea currently has some 60 to 70 such funds worth a combined 600 to 700 trillion won, and this new fund could end up rivaling that total on its own.
Kang also said the government would revisit its previously negative stance on new nuclear plant construction, and would discuss ways to shorten the typical seven-to-nine-year construction timeline. Nuclear-related stocks rose early in the session on the news but gave back most of those gains as the broader market weakened through the morning.