‘Liquid-type e-cigarettes worth 61.6 billion KRW’ caught at customs for illegal importation

Some illegally imported liquid-type electronic cigarettes seized by the Korea Customs Service. Provided by the Korea Customs Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Importers and corporations attempting to illegally bring liquid-type electronic cigarettes worth approximately 61.6 billion KRW into the country were caught by customs authorities.

The Korea Customs Service announced on the 2nd that it has conducted a planned crackdown on the illegal importation of liquid-type electronic cigarettes from last year until recently, identifying nine illegal importers including five corporations.

They have been reported or issued warnings on charges such as false declarations, tax evasion, illegal importation, and customs duty evasion.

According to the Korea Customs Service, Company A is suspected of falsely declaring 20 million ml of liquid nicotine cigarettes extracted from tobacco leaves as if extracted from stems to evade additional taxes imposed on cigarettes made from tobacco leaves. The amount of tax evaded by Company A through this method is estimated to be 36.4 billion KRW.

Additionally, Company B is accused of falsely declaring to customs that 15 million ml of liquid nicotine with a nicotine content of 2-3% had less than 1% nicotine content to evade various regulations such as reporting requirements under the Chemical Substances Control Act. Furthermore, they reported the import price as 300 million KRW instead of the actual price of 1.1 billion KRW, evading customs duties of 50 million KRW.

There was also a case where an individual was caught illegally importing liquid-type electronic cigarettes. Mr. C attempted to smuggle 4,300 units of liquid nicotine exceeding 1% nicotine content (market value 50 million KRW) by falsely declaring them as nicotine-free products or disguising them as products for family use, but was caught by customs.

The Korea Customs Service notified the Ministry of Environment of the violations found and plans to strengthen import inspections such as requesting related documentation and conducting component analysis during customs clearance in cooperation with related agencies including the Ministry of Environment when liquid nicotine enters the country.

They also plan to eradicate illegal imports of liquid-type electronic cigarettes through customs investigations and tax audits on tax evasion related to raw materials of liquid nicotine and charges of false or fraudulent declarations.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.