Tariffs to be lowered on 46 items to aid economy

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said yesterday it will lower tariffs on 46 imported items including oil, gas, sugar and corn next year to back an economic recovery trend.

According to the ministry, the policies will help keep the public utility costs from rising sharply and expensive imports from triggering inflation.

The tariff reduction will be achieved through quota tariffs, flexible tax schedules the government uses to lower the payments levied on pre-selected items by up to 40 percentage points from basic tariff rates. Once enacted, all items will have lower tariff rates than basic tariff rates. The ministry has applied the quota tariffs on 48 items this year. It said yesterday 41 tariffs will remain next year. Seven others will be excluded from the quota tariff pool, but five will be newly added.

The tariff rate on liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas next year will be 2 percent of their import prices, the ministry said. The basic tariff rate for both is 3 percent. The ministry said the tariff rate on gasoline and diesel will also fall from 5 percent to 3 percent. Sugar, on which usually a 40 percent tariff rate is imposed, will see a 35 percent tariff used instead. The tariff rate on corn used for animal feed will be cut from 3 percent to zero, the ministry said. Fifteen other imported items, however, will face higher tariffs next year, the ministry said. These items include frozen pollack, frozen saury and salted shrimp sauce.

By Moon Gwang-lip [joe@joongang.co.kr]