Roh said, “Re-review of Taxation System and Decrease in the Tax”

On the 14th. Present –elect Roh Moo-hyun said that he would look for the way to decrease the tax by reviewing the taxation system on a whole scale when a new government is inaugurated. In addition, he stressed once more his willingness to reform the ownership structure of large business groups, their unlawful conducts, or their practice of inheritance and gift.

President-elect Roh expressed as such in his speech under the topic of ‘the direction of the economic policy of the participating government’ at the CEO forum for the new year of the Federation of Korean Industries held at the COEX Inter-continental Seoul on that day.

President-elect Roh expressed, “He will make a review of the system and the structure of taxation after his inauguration,” and added, “He will make a detailed review of the areas in which the tax can be reduced after the whole and clear discovery of source of taxation makes it possible to levy a tax on the income unclear and evaded.”

In addition, in relation to the business conglomerates he said, “The unsound practices of large business groups in their inflating the revenue and exercising the governing power improperly have not be changed completely and there still remain such obvious unlawful activities as fraudulent accounting, false disclosure and the manipulation of stock prices,” and added “There is an indication that almost all of the useful enterprises have been incorporated into four major business conglomerates.”

President-elect Roh said, “The nation believes that the inheritance to the descendent is generalized,” and added “The pre-modern and underdeveloped atmosphere of transferring and accumulating the wealth without a sweat has to be rooted out at an earlier date.”

In relation to the privatization of the public enterprise he said, “I have no objection to the fact that the privatization is better than not to be privatized, but I thinks that top management’s pursuing his private interest by disregarding the rights and interests of the whole shareholders has to be corrected.”

President-elect Roh said, “There are not so many alternatives, which the government may be able to select, other than to make an early implementation of the budget.” and declined the possibility of boosting the economy by saying, “It is not the time to implement the policy of encouraging the private consumption in the situation of such a side-effect as a rapid and substantial increase in the real estate price remaining.”

Joong-Hyun Park sanjuck@donga.com