The Korea Customs Service will establish a "tariff delinquency management unit" to strengthen delinquency control and, for the first time ever, launch a full survey of the actual status of all delinquents. It will also operate a "special delinquency settlement period" for long-term delinquents and high-amount or new delinquents to fully push ahead with delinquency settlement.
On the 18th, the Korea Customs Service announced special measures to address steadily rising delinquent amounts. Tariff delinquent amounts increased from 1.578 trillion won in 2021 to 2.1155 trillion won as of last month.
As part of these measures, the Korea Customs Service will operate a "special delinquency settlement period" from Sept. 18 to Dec. 12. During this period, it plans a sweeping push to settle delinquencies by focusing on long-term delinquents and those with high amounts or new delinquencies.
During the special settlement period, it will track concealed assets and mobilize all possible administrative sanctions, including interviews with delinquents, home searches, seizures, and sales. At the same time, it will provide incentives such as partitioning payment and lifting departure bans to delinquents willing to pay, encouraging voluntary payment.
The Korea Customs Service will establish a "tariff delinquency management unit" to conduct a full survey of all delinquents' actual residence, living standards, income, and assets, while also identifying concealed assets and the possibility of intentional nonpayment. Through face-to-face interviews, it will confirm delinquents' intent and plans to pay and collect information needed to reclassify them and build a tailored management system.
To that end, in the fourth quarter of this year it will conduct a pilot survey of 100 high-amount delinquents, and from Mar. next year it will begin a full-scale census survey.
Based on the survey results, the Korea Customs Service will classify delinquents by type and begin tailored delinquency management. It also plans to build a delinquent profile databases (DB) to establish a systematic foundation for delinquency management.
Typically, it will enforce strong compulsory collection and administrative sanctions against high-risk delinquents, including sales of seized property, tracking of overseas concealed assets and virtual assets, and departure bans. By contrast, for livelihood delinquents, it will offer a chance at rehabilitation through approval of partitioning payment and deferral of seizure and sale, while deferring settlement for assetless delinquents but continuing post-management through regular asset investigations.