Special Consumption Tax on Diesel Vehicles Will be Reduced by 50 Percent for 2005

The government has decided to temporarily reduce the consumption tax in 2005 by 50 percent and lower the consumer price by 3 percent for “Euro-type 4” diesel vehicles.

Also, by increasing the tax credits for restaurant owners, each restaurant’s tax will be reduced by about 400,000 won per year.

The Ministry of Finance and Economy announced on January 18 that the tax law will be revised and it will be enforced starting next month.

According to the revision bill, among the “Euro-type 4” diesel vehicles, the special consumption tax will be lowered from 10 percent to 5.0 percent if the vehicle’s engine displacement is over 2000cc, and from five percent to 2.5 percent for vehicles under 2000cc.

As the result of tax code revisions, the consumer price of “Euro-type 4” diesel vehicles, which will be newly introduced to Korea, will be lowered by 3.0 percent. However, sports utility vehicles (SUV) will be excluded from the tax reduction.

Also, the revision bill will lighten restaurant owners’ tax burdens by temporarily increasing the rate of tax credit from 3/103 to 5/105 until the end of next year.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance and Economy estimateed that about 550,000 people who are running restaurant will receive about 400,000 won annually of supplementary tax reduction.

Jong sik Kong kong@donga.com