Hwaseong City Tolerates Tax Evasion by Benz Korea's Contractor

(아주경제 신기림 기자) Hwaseong city administration in Gyenggi province is suspected to be reluctant to deal with illegal facility run by a local contractor of Benz Korea, which led to the suspicion of having close ties with the company.

The administration is highly unlikely to avoid the criticism that it failed to conduct the duty of imposing tax since the local partnership company of Sona VPC is under suspicion of evading considerable amount of local tax.

The facility run by Sona VPC is located in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, and has a capacity of storing approximately 3,000 vehicles and Mercedes-Benz and other automakers have used it over the past two years.

After finding out the unlawful operation in the area, Hwaseong ordered to move 1,300 vehicles stored in the illegal facility until September 13. However, the criticism that Hawseong granted favors to Sony VPC with one month to move vehicles does not seem to calm down because the authority should immediately order to stop operating illegal facility after it found out the unlawful action.

Market observers say that Sona VPC seems to be more than just one of many contractors of Mercedes-Benz because the two are inter-connected in many respects.
Since 2004, the chief executive officer of Sona VPC has taken charge of Mercedes-Benz Korea’s showroom in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province and one of its executives worked as a vice president of the firm in the mid 2000s.

The world’s oldest automotive brand among active ones is exceptionally popular in Asia’s fourth-largest economy as its sedans are recognized as the one of the best vehicles in Korea.

Mercedes-Benz advanced to Korea in 2003 by establishing its subsidiary and has chalked up steady growth since then.

In particular, the Seoul-based outfit saw its sales rocket this year in tandem with the nation’s recovery from the unprecedented global financial crisis, which weighed on the global economy in 2008 and 2009.

During the first seven months of this year, Mercedes-Benz Korea sold 8,986 sedans here, up from just 3,925 over the corresponding period of last year, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association.
 

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