'Untrustworthy Myeonseyu!'... 91% of Gas Stations in Gyeonggi-do Overcharging on Myeonseyu

Taxable and Tax-Exempt Fuel Sales Structure

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] It has been revealed that 9 out of 10 gas stations selling duty-free fuel in Gyeonggi Province sold the duty-free fuel at prices higher than the appropriate price.

Duty-free fuel is oil exempt from value-added tax (10%) and various fuel taxes (transportation tax, education tax, individual consumption tax, etc.) based on the price (general consumer price) that considers the cost and appropriate margin, supplied at a low price to farmers and fishermen under the Restriction of Special Taxation Act.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 7th that, as a result of inspecting the price display status of all 164 gas stations selling three types of duty-free fuel (gasoline, diesel, kerosene) in the province from September 17 to 30, 149 stations, accounting for 91% of the total, sold duty-free fuel at prices higher than the appropriate price.

Gas station A sold duty-free fuel at 1,400 KRW per liter when the taxable fuel price (gasoline) for general consumers was 1,798 KRW per liter. This is 234 KRW (20%) more expensive than the appropriate duty-free fuel price (1,166 KRW), which is the taxable fuel price (1,798 KRW) minus taxes (632 KRW).

Gas station B sold duty-free fuel at 1,530 KRW per liter when the taxable fuel price (diesel) was 1,870 KRW per liter. This is 166 KRW (10.8%) more than the appropriate duty-free fuel price (1,364 KRW), which is the taxable fuel price (1,870 KRW) minus taxes (506 KRW).

As a result of this inspection, among the 164 gas stations, 149 stations sold gasoline with an average additional margin of 10.9% (121 KRW/liter) and diesel with an average additional margin of 6.3% (85 KRW/liter) compared to the appropriate duty-free price (price excluding tax exemption from the general consumer selling price). However, the province excluded kerosene from the additional margin calculation due to many cases of non-reporting on OPINET (Korea Petroleum Corporation fuel price information system).

The province believes that a considerable number of gas stations arbitrarily collected double margins without setting prices according to the definition of duty-free fuel. In particular, since it was confirmed that farmers and fishermen could not accurately grasp the appropriate duty-free fuel price due to inaccurate duty-free fuel price displays within gas stations, the province plans to strengthen continuous education and monitoring for business operators such as gas stations.

The main types of inaccurate duty-free fuel price displays include ▲ incorrect duty exemption amount at 102 stations (62.2%) ▲ discrepancy between the 'normal price' indicated on the duty-free fuel price board and the general consumer selling price at 40 stations (24.4%) ▲ partial or complete omission of price tags at 31 stations (18.9%) ▲ OPINET price reporting errors (non-reporting or different from selling price) at 38 stations (23.2%). All of these violate Article 38-2 of the Petroleum Business Act and are subject to fines up to 10 million KRW.

Kim Ji-ye, Director of the Fair Trade Bureau of the province, said, "There is concern that the original purpose of the duty-free fuel system for farmers and fishermen is being undermined due to gas stations' unfair profit-taking and violations of the price display system in an era of high oil prices and inflation." She added, "We will share the results with related departments so that even 10 or 20 KRW benefits from the duty-free fuel system can reach farmers and fishermen, and actively request cooperation for administrative measures such as imposing fines by city and county governments."

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