KCS holds nationwide customs audit meeting to strengthen probe framework, improve taxpayer services
The Korea Customs Service has moved to overhaul the way it conducts customs audits.
The agency held a nationwide customs audit officials meeting Monday at the Government Daejeon Complex, bringing together more than 50 directors and division chiefs from customs offices across the country.
The gathering aimed to review first-half audit performance and identify ways to make customs administration more tangible and accessible for citizens and businesses.
On audit results, the KCS said it had focused its investigative resources on fair taxation and economic stability, uncovering a total of 1.08 trillion won ($801 million) in tax evasion and regulatory violations between January and July this year.
Of that total, 176 billion won was attributed to tax evasion, while violations of import compliance requirements accounted for 737.7 billion won and origin-labeling infractions — including the mislabeling of foreign goods as domestically produced — came to 162.3 billion won, bringing total regulatory violations to approximately 900 billion won.
On future direction, the KCS used the meeting to discuss operational priorities, key initiatives and detailed action plans for its audit work. The agency plans to build a more rigorous audit framework while also improving convenience for taxpayers.
The scope of customs audits will expand beyond tax evasion to cover the full range of import and export supply chain management. The agency will also shift toward a regional customs office model in which the office covering a company's location takes the lead in managing that company's tax compliance.
The KCS also plans to broaden cooperative programs that encourage voluntary compliance — including a "faithful filing verification system" and a "self-audit program" — while introducing an AI-based work environment to improve the ease of tax administration for both users and internal staff.
Targeted enforcement to stabilize everyday prices will continue as well. The agency said it will crack down on practices that drive up the cost of staple foods and daily necessities, and will intensify efforts against unfair conduct including the fraudulent procurement of public goods, tax avoidance on high-end luxury items and tariff evasion through the smuggling of counterfeit nicotine products.
The KCS also pledged to strengthen protections for the domestic manufacturing base behind K-brands and for fair trade order. It will conduct rigorous crackdowns on the relabeling of imported goods as domestic products and on false country-of-origin declarations to block unfair trade practices.
The agency will also tighten surveillance across the full logistics supply chain — from imports through distribution to exports — and pursue integrated customs enforcement from a fair-trade perspective to protect regionally specialized industries.
Ha Yu-jeong, director of the KCS audit bureau, called on officials to ensure that "customs audits go beyond securing government revenue to stably managing the entire import-export supply chain and contributing to the competitiveness of domestic manufacturing industries." She also urged them to "do their utmost to implement without delay the audit framework reforms discussed at this meeting, so that import and export companies can grow fairly within the system and citizens can live in stable conditions."
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
