The government has decided to delay its plan to impose income tax on members of the clergy. It is not rare for the government to take a backstep on key reform agendas for unconvincing reasons, but this is truly disappointing.

The Finance Ministry said it was putting off the plan, which was to go into effect next year, by one year, because the religious community needed more time to prepare for the change. In an apparent move to appease public criticism, the ministry stressed that the ruling party wanted a two-year grace period, but it decided to shorten it by one year.

The bigger problem is that given what the government and the ruling party have done, we cannot even be sure that the plan to start taxing the clergy will be implemented in 2016. Above all else, general elections are scheduled for that year, and instituting a new policy that would turn some voters against the ruling party would be the last thing the government would want to do.

This skepticism is based on the suspicion that the government and the ruling party decided to put off the plan in consideration of the fact that the ruling camp already had a lot of pending reforms next year ― like overhauling the deficit-ridden pension plans for government workers and reform of the labor market ― which could fan antigovernment sentiment.

Whatever their real motives may be, we had thought the government might postpone the plan. Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said last August that the issue still required a consensus among religious groups, citing opposition from some Protestant churches.

The ruling party made the same point after holding a meeting with representatives of leading religious groups in November. It seems that the government and the ruling party had been laying the groundwork for delaying the plan.

Yes, if this is an issue that needs unanimous agreement, it is true that it lacks a consensus. But paying taxes ― like the military service duties shouldered by every healthy man ― is not a matter requiring consent from those who have the obligations.

President Park Geun-hye has often said one of her government’s priorities is to “normalize abnormalities” and redress problems it inherited from the past governments. Providing undue tax privileges to a certain group of people is one big abnormality because it breaches the most fundamental elements of taxation ― equality and fairness.