Jung-gu, the Secret Behind Doubling the Number of License Plate Seizures for Overdue Vehicles Compared to Last Year?

2023 Revenue from Seized License Plates of Overdue Vehicles Doubled Compared to Last Year
Effect of Expanded ‘Public Parking Lot Linked License Plate Seizure Notification System’ Since June Last Year
Automatic Vehicle Number Recognition at Entry Enables Real-Time Notification of Target Vehicles for Precise Seizure

Each autonomous district in Seoul is facing significant concerns due to reduced tax revenue caused by a slowdown in real estate transactions.

Amid this, Jung-gu, Seoul (District Mayor Kim Gil-seong) has attracted attention by achieving nearly double the tax revenue from the vehicle license plate seizure operation for delinquent payments last year compared to the previous year.

License plate seizure refers to the practice where local governments remove the license plates of vehicles that have unpaid automobile taxes or parking and stopping violation fines. Vehicle owners can retrieve their license plates upon paying the outstanding taxes or fines. This system was established to increase district tax revenue and foster a fair tax payment culture.

In 2023, Jung-gu seized license plates from 3,240 vehicles, an increase of 1,415 vehicles compared to 2022, and the collected amount reached 884 million KRW, a 92% increase from 2022.

The hidden key to this achievement is the ‘District Public Parking Lot Linked License Plate Seizure Notification System’ introduced in June last year. This system automatically recognizes the license plates of vehicles entering public parking lots, and if a vehicle is confirmed to be delinquent, information such as the parking lot location, vehicle number, and delinquency details is sent to the enforcement officer’s dedicated device, enabling swift license plate seizure.

The system, which had been operating since March 2022 in 19 public parking lots managed by Seoul City, was expanded to all 24 public parking lots in Jung-gu. This is far more efficient compared to the previous method where enforcement officers patrolled on foot or by vehicle to check the license plates of parked cars to find delinquent vehicles.

This is the largest scale implementation among autonomous district public parking lots, with only Seocho-gu (3 locations) and Gangnam-gu (2 locations) having similar systems.

Increasing the mobile enforcement team by one member and adding one more vehicle for rapid seizure also contributed to the increase in tax revenue.

Kim Gil-seong, Mayor of Jung-gu, stated, “Despite the difficult economic situation both domestically and internationally, we will continue to carry out strong delinquent tax collection activities so that the majority who faithfully pay their taxes can be respected.”