The scale of tax evasion and regulatory violations caught by customs authorities from January to this July has been tallied at 1.076 trillion won.

This is approximately 40 percent of last year's total annual detection performance.

The Korea Customs Service announced on the 7th that it held the National Customs Audit Officials Meeting at the Government Complex-Daejeon to review this year's customs audit performance and discuss future directions.

According to the Korea Customs Service, the amount of tax evasion detected from January to July was 176 billion won, regulatory violations such as non-compliance with import requirements amounted to 737.7 billion won, and origin labeling violations, such as disguising foreign products as domestic, totaled 162.3 billion won.

Looking at major detection cases, Company A and others were found to have evaded 887 billion won in taxes by failing to reflect the actual margins of related-party exporters in their import prices and declaring them at low values.

Company B and others applied low tariffs on imported meat under the condition of swiftly distributing it domestically after import, but instead kept it in storage warehouses without circulating it on the market, improperly acquiring 9.4 billion won in benefits from national finances before being caught.

Company C and others were investigated for importing foreign steel bars, performing simple cutting work, and selling 8.7 billion won worth domestically without indicating their country of origin.

The Korea Customs Service plans to expand the scope of customs audits from countering tax evasion to overall import and export supply chain management, and transition its tax administration system to focus on regional customs offices overseeing corporate locations.

In addition, to stabilize public livelihood prices, it will intensively crack down on actions driving up the prices of dining table items and daily necessities, financial embezzlement related to public procurement goods, tax evasion on luxury goods, and tax evasion through fake nicotine imports.
 
(Photo: Provided by Korea Customs Service, Yonhap News)