Assembly Airs 2 Issues

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Assembly Airs 2 Issues

The National Assembly opened committee hearings Thursday to tackle two major issues ?the tax audit of media companies and worries about mad cow disease possibly being introduced in Korea.

At the Agriculture, Forestry, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Committee, ruling lawmakers said that the government should conduct an inspection of some 196 tons of beef and beef byproducts imported from European countries from 1996 to 2000. Seoul banned imports of beef and its byproducts from European countries with cases of mad cow disease only last December.

Rep. Jung Jang-sun of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party disclosed that "55 metric tons of beef and 13 metric tons of tripe were imported in 1996 and 14 tons of ox tail were imported in 1997 from Ireland, where the disease broke out in 1989."

At the Finance and Economy committee meeting, a partisan rift broke out over the government's tax review of 23 national media organizations.

Rep. Ahn Taek-soo of the opposition Grand National Party said that "the tax inspection undertaken by the Fair Trade Commission in the middle of the National Tax Service's ongoing audit proves that the government is moving to muzzle the press."

A fellow opposition lawmaker, Rep. Lah Oh-yeon, joined in, saying that tax inspections should be carried out only when there is clear evidence of tax evasion or incorrect reporting of income.

"In the case of corporations with sales of 10 billion won ($7.9 million) or above that haven't been audited in the past five years, the government routinely inspects 3 percent of the total group," Mr. Lah said. "The government's current inspection into all national media companies goes beyond the norm."

Deputy Prime Minister of Economy Jin Nyum replied by saying that the central tax office is carrying out its routine task while the anti-monopoly commission was looking into unfair trade practices by media companies, such as free circulation aimed at increasing readership.



by Lee Yang-soo

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