SEOUL, KOREA - The total amount of government liabilities under litigation by corporations and individuals has surpassed the 10-trillion-won level for the first time. According to the Ministry of Strategy & Finance and 17 local governments at city and provincial levels, the total volume of liabilities that the government may have to compensate was 10,485.3 billion won as of the end of last year, up 6.0 percent from 9,893.0 billion won in 2012.
The lawsuits against the central government are raised by appeals to a variety of tax and penalty imposition. In the case of local governments, the appeals are mostly for unfair revocation on business licenses and compensation for seizure of properties due to road construction. By ministry and government agency, the Fair Trade Commission had the largest liability amount of 2,721.1 billion won, followed by the Ministry of Justice (1,595.6 billion won), National Tax Service (1,401.6 billion won), and the Ministry of Defense (1,285.7 billion won).
For local governments, the aggregate volume was 827.1 billion won, up 23.6 percent from 669.0 billion won in the previous year. The Seoul metropolitan city government and the Gyeonggi provincial government took the largest portion with 202.5 billion won. It was then followed by the Incheon city government (97.6 billion won), Daegu city government (82.9 billion won), and Busan city government (24.8 billion won). In particular, Daegu city saw its litigation volume rise by 10 times from 2012 when the figure was only 7.8 billion won.
Article provided by The Korea Economic Daily
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