National Tax Service Conducts On-Site Crackdown on 97 Companies Accused of Fake Oil Production and Other Charges

Published 25 Apr.2022 12:00(KST)

On-site inspection of kerosene being loaded into a dump truck using a tanker truck

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Kim Hyewon] The National Tax Service (NTS) is launching a focused inspection on the illegal distribution of petroleum products in cooperation with the Korea Petroleum Management Service.

The NTS announced that starting from 10 a.m. on the 25th, field inspectors from seven regional tax offices and 68 tax offices simultaneously began crackdowns on disorderly acts in petroleum product distribution and tax evasion. They are conducting on-site inspections of 97 suspected companies involved in manufacturing counterfeit petroleum, illegal sales of kerosene, and undocumented petroleum sales.

The NTS checked for issues frequently occurring in the high oil price situation, including ▲manufacture and distribution of counterfeit petroleum ▲illegal sales of kerosene as vehicle fuel ▲undocumented, disguised, or fabricated transactions of petroleum products ▲and improper leakage of duty-free fuel.

An NTS official stated, "If it is confirmed during the inspection that petroleum distribution and sales companies exploited high oil prices to make excessive profits while evading taxes, we will actively consider converting the case into a tax audit."

With technical support from the Korea Petroleum Management Service, the NTS expects to detect a significant portion of abnormal acts exploiting consumer sensitivity to oil prices, such as counterfeit petroleum and illegal fuel mixing.