Customs Duty Arrears Reach 900 Billion Won, 'Record High'... Collection Rate Stands at 0.1%

List of high-amount and habitual tax delinquents and collection performance data submitted by the Korea Customs Service to the office of Assemblywoman Yang Hyang-ja. Provided by the office of Assemblywoman Yang Hyang-ja.

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The cumulative customs tax arrears of high-value and habitual defaulters have exceeded 900 billion won, marking an all-time high. On the other hand, the collection rate of the customs authorities for these arrears remains at the 0.1% level, raising calls for measures to increase the collection rate.

According to the data on the "Status of Disclosure of High-Value and Habitual Defaulters and Collection Performance" submitted by the Korea Customs Service to Yang Hyang-ja, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea (Gwangju Seo-gu Eul), as of last year, there were 257 high-value and habitual defaulters, with their cumulative arrears totaling 910.4 billion won.

By arrears bracket, the distribution was as follows: ▲ 2 billion won to 5 billion won - 59 people (23%) ▲ 5 billion won to 10 billion won - 99 people (38.5%) ▲ 10 billion won to 30 billion won - 74 people (28.8%) ▲ 30 billion won to 50 billion won - 11 people (4.3%) ▲ 50 billion won to 100 billion won - 8 people (3.1%) ▲ Over 100 billion won - 6 people (2.3%).

The main imported items of the defaulters included in the list were consumer goods at 41.2%, followed by agricultural, fishery, and livestock products at 25.3%, alcoholic beverages at 9.3%, and used cars at 4.3%.

Most of these defaulters were caught attempting to evade customs duties by declaring a lower amount to customs than the actual payment at the time of import declaration.

On the other hand, the amount collected from these defaulters was only 1.45 billion won, accounting for just 0.16% of the total arrears. The number of defaulters from whom arrears were collected was 44 people (17.1%) out of the total.

The Korea Customs Service publicly discloses the list of high-value defaulters who have arrears of 2 billion won or more and have been in arrears for over one year, in accordance with the Customs Act.

Assemblywoman Yang pointed out, "With arrears approaching 1 trillion won, the collection rate is less than 0.2%, making one doubt whether the Korea Customs Service is truly committed to collecting arrears," and added, "The Korea Customs Service must devise effective measures to increase the collection rate of high-value and habitual defaulters."

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