[Money Bus] When Tax Revenues Surge, It's the Right Time for Interest Adjustment

Individual taxis, which account for two-thirds of all taxis in Seoul, actually decrease their operating frequency after 9–10 p.m., even as demand rises. This is due to a reluctance to drive late at night and to deal with intoxicated passengers. If autonomous taxis were introduced, the nighttime taxi shortage could potentially be resolved. The Bank of Korea pointed this out in its September 2025 report, "The Era of Autonomous Driving: Crisis and Innovation Strategies for Korea's Taxi Service."

Korea is far behind major countries in the field of autonomous taxis. Currently, there are only 19 autonomous taxis operating in Seoul after 10 p.m., all of which are in Gangnam and still require a safety operator on board. In contrast, the United States and China are accelerating their autonomous taxi businesses. Waymo, a subsidiary of Google, operates around 4,000 robotaxis across 11 U.S. cities. Apollo Go, operated by China's Baidu, has surpassed 1,000 robotaxis in operation.

Autonomous taxis have significant industrial value as well. The combination of finished vehicles, autonomous driving software, and related infrastructure is giving rise to new products and services. If this continues, the technological gap between Korea and major countries in the autonomous driving industry will widen even further. In the worst-case scenario, Korean automakers may have to launch vehicles equipped with foreign autonomous systems, forcing users to pay service fees to overseas technology companies.

The United States and China issue separate licenses for robotaxis, in addition to regular taxi licenses. In Korea, taxi licenses are managed by quota, making it impossible for autonomous taxis to obtain licenses in excess of the existing quota. This quota regulation, aimed at protecting taxi operators, is one of the reasons the government has yet to implement a roadmap for autonomous taxis.

Australia has shown how to address this problem. The government of Western Australia legalized ride sharing services such as Uber in 2016, and then announced a plan in 2017 to buy back taxi licenses. By 2019, it had completed the buyback of about 1,000 taxi licenses. The buyback fund was recovered by temporarily levying an additional 10% fee on all commercial vehicles, including taxis.

With tax revenues boosted by the semiconductor boom, the government is expected to increase next year's budget to more than 800 trillion won, up by over 10% from last year's 729 trillion won. The government plans to allocate much of this expanded budget to its three major mega-projects such as semiconductors, to nurturing future growth engines like aerospace, to supporting youths at every stage of their development, to addressing polarization, and to strengthening public safety.

One additional item to consider is a buyback fund for taxi licenses to prepare for the era of autonomous driving. It would take about 7 trillion won to purchase all individual taxi licenses in Seoul. Using this government-backed fund, municipalities such as the Seoul Metropolitan Government could buy the licenses. Then, a portion of future autonomous taxi fares could be collected to repay the fund. After repayment, the replenished fund could be returned to the national treasury.

Balancing the interests of various stakeholders is a difficult process that may require a significant amount of funding. Times of fiscal surplus offer the best opportunity to resolve interests and open the door to autonomous driving while protecting the interests of taxi operators.

Baek Woojin, Economic Columnist

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.