"Government Policy Encouraging Stock Price Suppression Runs Counter to Investor Protection"

He strongly criticized the current system as one that keeps defending people who evade taxes. He argued that these problems go beyond stock market revitalization and affect fairness across society as a whole.

He said he hopes an environment will take shape in which people treat stock investment as part of everyday life and can reap substantial gains from it. To that end, he emphasized that the government and financial authorities should consistently pursue investor-centered policy directions.

Professor Seo noted that there is insufficient consideration of the situations investors will face when financial products and systems are designed. He criticized the continued presentation of policies that could never emerge if investor protection and well-being were the top priority. He mentioned that the same problem appears in the recent tax reform plan and in the discussion over delisting small KOSDAQ companies, and called for a shift toward investor-centered thinking.

This means the institution has been turned into one that is highly likely to be abused, distorting the original legislative purpose.

Existing unlisted companies are taxed at 80% of net asset value when they trade at 80% or less of that value, whereas listed companies are valued at market price, creating a loophole that allows lower tax payments if share prices are artificially depressed. Rep. Lee's proposal aimed to close this gap by taxing listed companies at 0.8 times PBR as the baseline when their PBR is 0.8 or below.

If a 100 billion won building is directly gifted or inherited, tax is levied on that full amount. But if the listed company that owns the building has its share price deliberately lowered so the company trades at 20 billion won, tax is levied only on the 20 billion won. He explained that this is a highly tempting method for major shareholders and that many similar cases are actually occurring. Such indirect inheritance and gift tax evasion is pointed out as a serious violation of tax justice.

To prevent such indirect transfers, Rep. Lee So-young proposed applying 80% of net asset value to listed companies as well, as is done for unlisted ones, so that a company worth 100 billion won would be taxed on 80 billion won. The aim is to restore the original purpose of the listing system and increase tax equity.

Originally, the intent was to apply the same tax principles to listed companies as to unlisted ones, but the plan states that a 30% inheritance and gift surcharge will apply to several hundred companies in the bottom 25% with PBR below 0.5. Professor Seo criticized this measure as akin to giving guidance saying, 'You lowered it too much to 10 billion won, so we will tax it at 13 billion won,' when a company holding a 100 billion won building is driven down in value to 10 billion won. He strongly condemned this as tantamount to the government effectively tolerating tax evasion through stock price manipulation and issuing a license that fosters 'criminal acts' or 'fraud.' Professor Seo warned that such policies will seriously undermine tax justice and result in condoning major shareholders' indirect transfers of wealth.

He said that in a soccer match, players and the referees who monitor and check them must be clearly separated, but in the Korean stock market, related parties such as the government, companies, exchanges, and associations gather together in a 'brotherly' fashion, playing the game themselves while also acting as referees. This means that the unclear boundaries over who operates and who manages risk, due to unclear responsibility, are harming the soundness of the market.

He noted that even though there are clear actors who took action and victims, it is difficult for the media and broadcasters to clearly identify who is responsible. He explained that this reflects the reality that because the wrongdoers hold the power of 'big players,' responsibility becomes ambiguous and the problem remains unresolved.

He explained that only when this division of roles functions properly can the effects of policy be maximized and market trust be earned.

He said that in the past some bureaucrats followed instructions as given, but now, when they dislike the direction of an instruction, they deliberately sidestep it or implement policies like firing 100 meters at an enemy 1 kilometer away. He said this behavior appeared especially in real estate policy and that similar problems are recurring in recent stock market policy, expressing strong dissatisfaction.

Although the argument was made that a SK Hynix leveraged ETF created in Hong Kong had to be stopped after growing to 13 billion dollars, Professor Seo countered that this rationale was not valid.

Professor Seo argued that the government's policy goal should not simply be to raise stock prices. He stressed that the government's true role is to channel healthy capital into the stock market in ways that positively affect the economy. He voiced concern about the government treating rising share prices as a key performance indicator (KPI), repeatedly emphasizing that market soundness, modernization, and the establishment of institutional rules matter far more than share price gains. He warned that without this understanding, market distortion may result.

He likened the measures of raising margin requirements and increasing the minimum purchase unit from one share to 20 shares to 'scooping back up soup that has already been spilled while boiling it,' calling them irrational. He warned that these measures are merely stopgap responses that fail to address the fundamental problem and may instead add confusion to the market.

Professor Seo argued that just as companies say 'return to your original intent' when faced with crisis, officials too must return to their original purpose. Using an analogy, he said that when beer foam has blown away, you do not try to scoop the foam back up but instead rebuild the foundation of the stock market, stacking the beer back up layer by layer. He said that only when healthy capital flows into the stock market in large amounts can stocks such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix grow on a solid footing. He criticized the current approach as focusing exclusively on pushing up share prices before the foundation is properly laid, which he compared to building a house by pulling bricks from elsewhere. He emphasized that policy direction should be set so that healthy capital continues to gather, and that the 'stock price suppression prevention bill' should send a signal that major shareholders cannot act arbitrarily and that investing is safe. He added that the government missed a good opportunity to make far more active use of ISA accounts than it has.