Seoul City on Wednesday protested the central government’s planned increase of the subsidy for free child care, saying it falls far short of the city’s demand.

The central government reiterated that it would raise its contribution to the local governments’ child welfare budgets from 20 percent to 30 percent for Seoul and from 50 percent to 60 percent for other major cities and provinces.

The finance, administration and welfare ministries also announced that they would increase the share of value-added taxes that go to local government’s coffers from the current 5 percent to 8 percent next year and 11 percent in 2015.

The measures are aimed at making up increasing budget deficits at local entities due to cuts in real estate taxes and increased spending on welfare.

But the government refused Seoul City’s demanded increase of a contribution to 40 percent.

“The city questions whether the central government has the will to take responsibility for free child care and whether it knows how serious difficulties local governments are facing are,” the city government said in a statement.

The city argued that an increase of 10 percentage points would still leave the city having to shoulder 325 billion won ($302 million) of the cost next year, which is about 100 billion won more than this year.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)