The conservative Liberty Korea Party on Friday denounced presidential front-runner Moon Jae-in's pledge to raise the corporate tax rate, stressing it "goes against global trends" and would undermine local businesses' competitiveness.
Choung Tae-ok, the spokesman of the party's election campaign, demanded the candidate of the liberal Democratic Party retract the pledge to raise the top tax rate for businesses -- earning yearly taxable incomes worth 50 billion won ($44.1 million) or more -- to 25 percent from the current 22 percent.
Choung Tae-ok (Yonhap)
"When the entire world is striving to forge a business-friendly environment, only candidate Moon is going backwards by seeking to increase the corporate tax rate," Choung said in a commentary.
"We are concerned that foreign enterprises as well as local firms may opt to relocate their factories overseas," he added.
The party's criticism came a day after the US government announced its plan to slash the corporate rate to 15 percent from the current 35 percent as part of its broader tax reform likely to face tough congressional scrutiny.
Local business circles have also expressed concerns over Moon's proposal for tax hikes, claiming that it would trigger a chain of side effects such as an increase in consumer prices and a drop in workers' salaries.
In various voter surveys, Hong Joon-pyo, the candidate of the conservative party, has ranked a distant third with the election race dominated by two liberals -- Moon and Ahn Cheol-soo of the center-left People's Party. (Yonhap)