The government has decided to supply a one-off, lump-sum financial support for the public to help the nation cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Presiding over the third emergency economic meeting at the top office on Monday, President Moon Jae-in announced a plan to provide one million won in emergency disaster relief money to lower-income families that account for 70 percent of the country's 20 million households. 

Moon said every citizen deserves to be compensated for their suffering from the infectious disease and for joining quarantine efforts. 

He said another supplementary budget plan will be drafted to finance the emergency relief fund, following an 11-point-seven trillion won extra plan that passed in the National Assembly earlier this month.  

He said the government will submit it to the Assembly swiftly so it would be passed within the next month after the April 15 general elections are over, and called for parliamentary cooperation on its swift passage. 

To help draw bipartisan agreement on the second extra bill, the president vowed that most of the additional budget plans will be financed through government budget restructuring. 

He said saving fiscal expenditures will also be necessary to prepare the government for the disease’s growing economic impact and deal with job instability and the liquidity crisis for companies.  

Moon said the government has also decided to provide low-income households and small business owners with payment deferrals of four social insurance fees and electricity fees or a reduction in those fees, adding they will benefit from the measures from this month.