The Korea Customs Service uncovered an oil smuggling case by two distribution entities who dodged some 4.3 billion won in taxes while selling oil from Singapore, the agency said Wednesday.The tax authority arrested one and filed complaints against seven others involved in smuggling 9.45 million liters of base oil used for making lubricant, it said. The Korea Customs Service is after the other three who fled during the investigation process.“We caught a total of 11 people who smuggled unrefined o

U.S. private equity firm Lone Star Fund is reviewing measures to challenge a 391.5 billion won ($348 million) withholding tax on its sale of Korea Exchange Bank to Hana Financial Group Inc., a source said Wednesday. The amount equal to 10 percent of Lone Star’s KEB sale proceeds was paid to the National Tax Service on Monday as a withholding tax, a Hana Financial Group official said. “Hana Financial and Lone Star agreed to the fact that the tax must be paid so we paid the withholding tax as sche

Two Korean heavyweights are now unlikely to get listed on the stock market this year, forcing investors to readjust their bets on the much-anticipated initial public offerings. Samsung Group said on Wednesday that it has no plans to list shares of Samsung Everland, the group’s de facto holding firm, on the local stock market. Separately, industry sources said Kyobo Life Insurance is now expected to halt its plan to pursue an IPO this year in the face of volatile market conditions.“We have no pla

The Financial Supervisory Service is set to take disciplinary action against Samsung Card for leaking customer information.The credit card firm’s CEO Choi Chi-hun also faces a regulatory sanction for allegedly negligent internal control.According to the FSS and police, the personal information of about 1.92 million customers of Samsung Card was leaked by a former employee between January 2010 and August 2011.FSS officials say punitive measures against the company and its CEO are inevitable.The r

Vice Finance Minister Shin Je-yoon on Wednesday said the inflow of foreign capital into the local bond market is a concern, projecting worries about yet another round of speculative capital inflow. “Foreign investors have been upping their share of Korean bonds and it is a concern,” Shin said at a business forum.Foreign investors in February raised their holdings of Korean bonds by the most since July last year. Their net holding of local bonds rose by 1.8 trillion won ($1.6 billion) to 86 trill

South Korean banks’ household loans rose moderately in February from the previous month on increased demand from households moving to new homes, the central bank said Wednesday. Local banks’ household loans, including home-backed loans and credit loans, reached 452.7 trillion won ($402 billion) as of the end of February, up 0.5 trillion won from a month earlier, according to preliminary data of the Bank of Korea. Lenders’ household loans rebounded in February after dipping by 2.8 trillion won in

South Korea’s economy is slowing down, but its downward pace seems to be “moderating” despite the lingering eurozone debt problems, high oil prices and other cloudy global economic conditions, a state-run think tank said Wednesday.Inflation is also showing signs of stabilizing, easing worries that higher price levels could dampen the country‘s overall economic recovery going forward, according to the Korea Development Institute.“The Korean economy is slowing down at a moderating pace and the inf

South Korea’s money supply edged up 0.3 percent in January from the previous month on the rise of short-term money trusts, the central bank said Wednesday. The country‘s M2, a narrow measure of the money supply, reached a seasonally adjusted 1,757.6 trillion won ($1.56 trillion) in January, compared with 1,752.1 trillion won the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea. Compared with one year earlier, the M2 also expanded 4.9 percent in the month. Since January, the central bank began rele

Small and medium enterprises in South Korea are planning to scale back their investments in facilities amid a bleak economic outlook, with their plans nearing the level seen in 2009 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, a report showed Tuesday.In a survey of 3,070 SMEs by policy lender Industrial Bank of Korea, 32.3 percent of the companies said they have plans for facility investment this year, down 8.7 percentage points from a year earlier.The figure marks the lowest level since 34.

Korean stocks closed 0.78 percent lower Tuesday, as renewed worries over a global economic downturn prompted by China’s cut in its growth target kept investors at bay, analysts said. The local currency lost ground against the U.S. dollar. After opening 0.16 percent higher, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index soon reverted to lose 15.70 points to close at 2,000.36. Trading volume was moderate at 544.9 million shares worth 5.22 trillion won ($4.64 billion) with decliners far outpacing

The Korea Exchange saw its operating income rise last year, reigniting a dispute about the current trading fee system.The KRX, the country’s bourse operator, earned 421.2 billion won ($375.3 million) in operating income last year, up 6.3 percent, or 25.3 billion won, from a year earlier. Of the operating income, trading fees accounted for 342.2 billion won. The sizable profits are providing ammunition to brokerages and financial firms, which demand a cut in trading fees. The improved earnings fo

Regulator has its hands tied as consumers reluctant to replace their outdated cardsKorea’s financial regulator hit a snag in implementing an overhaul of the credit card system to replace magnetic strip cards with those with an integrated circuit.The Financial Supervisory Service announced in late January that it would push for the change, but confronted problems, such as consumer complaints and the absence of mandatory measures. The FSS said the planned change that would bar consumers from using

Korea’s top economic policymaker reiterated his opposition Monday to politicians’ demand to raise tax rates on rich people and businesses to finance additional welfare programs. Ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for April and December, political parties are rushing to unveil a spate of welfare programs and campaign pledges, many of which policymakers see as “populist” and fiscally “unsustainable.”Some lawmakers claim that the government needs to raise tax rates on the w