The government has imposed a 170 billion won ($156 million) tariff on Posco, South Korea’s leading steelmaker, for underreporting the price of liquefied natural gas imported from Indonesia to evade tax, Korea Customs Service said Tuesday.
KCS‘ latest decision was based on grounds that the price of LNG imported by Posco between 2012 and 2016 was about half the figure reported by state-run Korea Gas Corporation. The government argues Posco has evaded tax worth some 100 billion won by underreporting.
SK E&S was also slapped with a 150 billion won tariff last year for underreporting LNG price imported from Indonesia.
(Yonhap)
Korean companies are objecting vehemently to the government’s decision saying they had signed a favorable deal.
“We did not underreport the price of LNG. Back then we imported LNG at a good price to use at Posco’s steelworks,” spokesperson of Posco said.
Posco said it will appeal to the government to re-evaluate the validity of the tariff.
A notification was sent to Posco last month to inform them of the tariff, KCS said.
By Kim Bo-gyung (
lisakim425@heraldcorp.com)
