SEOUL: The portion of business earnings out of South Korea’s gross national income is the highest among the OECD nations, according to a local lawmaker.
Park Won-suk, a lawmaker of Justice Party, said the portion of business earnings out of Korea’s GNI stood at 25.19 percent on average during the five years from 2009 to 2013, the highest among the rich nations. The average figure of the OECD countries was 18.21 percent.
The share of company earnings out of GNI in South Korea has increased by 0.62 percent on average among the rich economies during the same period.
South Korea’s business earnings has seen a rapid rise since 2000. The portion of company earnings out of GNI was 17.63 percent in 2000, a similar level to the OECD average of 17.64 percent. However, the figure has since increased to 21.34 percent in 2005, 25 percent in 2010 and 25.19 percent in 2013.
Park said, “The government has always stressed that Korea’s corporate tax is higher than other nations. However, it has rarely mentioned its higher portion out of GNI,” adding that, “The government seems to have intentionally concealed the data in a bid to ignore the demand on raising corporate tax.”
