Shin Young-dae: "Over 3,000 Annual Smuggling Reports... Reward Budget Decreases Every Year"

"Ensure Sufficient Funding to Actively Encourage Reporting"

Recently, while smuggling reports have been increasing, the budget for rewards given for such reports has been decreasing every year.

According to data submitted by the Korea Customs Service to Shin Young-dae, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (Jeonbuk Gunsan·Gimje·Buan Gap), the total rewards paid to informants for smuggling reports over the past five years (2020 to the first half of this year) amount to 2.8 billion KRW (3,307 cases).

Shin Young-dae

Rewards for smuggling reports are paid according to the Customs Act based on each violation case, the market value of the violation, or the revenue to the national treasury. Payments are made depending on the quantity of seized items such as firearms, knives, and counterfeit currency.

The reward amount paid for smuggling reports last year was 938 million KRW, a 41.2% increase from 664 million KRW the previous year. In particular, the reward amount for drug-related reports surged by 167.3%, rising from 96.2 million KRW in 2022 to 257.1 million KRW last year, following an increase in the maximum payout limit to 300 million KRW.

However, despite the increase in reward payments, the related budget has actually been cut. Over the past five years, the budget for smuggling report rewards decreased from 910 million KRW in 2020 to 660 million KRW in both 2021 and 2022, and was further reduced to 506 million KRW last year and this year.

Representative Shin stated, "If adequate compensation is not provided due to an insufficient budget, the motivation to report drug smuggling is likely to decline," emphasizing, "It is necessary to secure sufficient resources to actively encourage reporting, thereby enhancing crime prevention and detection efficiency."