South Korea's tax office said Wednesday that it has collected 1.14 trillion won ($1.04 billion) in taxes from suspected offshore tax evaders so far this year.

The National Tax Service collected the amount in the first 10 months of the year from 187 offshore tax dodgers. The take is slightly more than the 1.1 trillion won dues collected from evaders in the same period a year earlier, it said.

In 2016, the NTS collected a total of 1.3 trillion won from 228 overseas tax dodgers.

Offshore tax evasion has been on the rise in recent years, as some wealthy people have shifted their assets to offshore tax havens in an apparent move to exploit legal loopholes to avoid taxation.

The tax office said it is looking into 37 individuals and companies on suspicion that they have dodged taxation by setting up offshore entities in tax havens.

"We are investigating those people who are suspected of having evaded taxes," said an NTS official. (Yonhap)