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The South Korean government has begun phasing out its fuel tax cuts, reducing the cuts from 15 percent to seven.
The prices of fuel products, especially at gas stations has noticeably increased since the move took effect today.
Our Seo Eunkyung has more.
The government started phasing out its fuel tax cuts on Tuesday, with the tax cuts to be completely eliminated by September.
According to the Ministry of Economics and Finance on May 6th,
the government reduced its fuel tax cuts from 15 percent to just 7 percent starting Tuesday.
This seven percent cut, which lasts until the end of August, means the current fuel tax stands at 56 cents per liter, roughly four cents per liter lower than it would be without any cuts at all.
The first tax cut of 15 percent began in November and lasted for 6 months in an attempt to help small businesses and ordinary citizens.
The reduction in the cuts from 15 percent to 7 percent will see prices of gasoline, diesel and LPG increase by around 6 cents, 4 cents and 1 cent, respectively.
According to Opinet the oil information service ran by the Korea National Oil Corporation, gasoline prices at stations across the country have edged up to almost one U.S dollar 40 cents per liter as of 5pm local time, up 2 cents from yesterday.
"A price hike due to the newly implemented smaller tax cut is highly likely.
In the mid-to long term, fluctuations in oil prices due to supply and geographical issues are also crucial external factors"
The expert said that domestic prices for fuel products are highly likely to be affected by those factors.
Seo Eunkyung, Arirang News.
