South Korea's corporate watchdog has raised its target for money collected as fines and penalties for next year, government sources said Wednesday, in an apparent move to toughen the crackdown on unfair business activities.

According to the sources from the finance ministry and the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), the FTC plans to collect 695.3 billion won ($648.6 million) in fines and penalties next year, which is up 15 percent, or 91.8 billion won, from this year.

The fines and penalties are mostly imposed by the FTC in connection with its investigation into businesses accused of violating the country's fair trade law and other rules including price rigging and unfair business practices.

The move appears to be in line with the FTC's push to establish fair market principles and support the government's efforts to strengthen economic democratization. The FTC has said that it will intensify its crackdown on business practices that could hurt fair market competition.

The increased target for fines and penalties also seems to be in line with the government's efforts to expand the overall revenue base in the face of growing fiscal demand for welfare spending.

This, however, could end up growing the burden on the business sector, market watchers said. Some expressed worries that such tough moves by the corporate watchdog could negatively affect their overall business activities. (Yonhap News)