"Turning a Blind Eye to Highway Tolls"... 370,000 Vehicles Habitually Failed to Pay Last Year

5.7% of Non-Paying Vehicles Account for 42.9% of Unpaid Tolls

The number of vehicles with habitual non-payment of highway tolls—those that failed to pay tolls more than 20 times—surpassed 370,000 last year.

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According to data submitted by Democratic Party lawmaker Jung Il-young, a member of the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, on the 25th, the number of vehicles that failed to pay highway tolls at least 20 times last year reached 374,000. This figure has increased 2.2 times in just four years, up from 170,000 in 2021. The numbers also rose from 320,000 in 2024 to 374,000 last year, indicating a continued upward trend.

The total amount of unpaid tolls from these vehicles was 42,672,000,000 won. Vehicles with more than 20 instances of non-payment accounted for just 5.7% of all non-paying vehicles but were responsible for 42.9% of the total unpaid tolls. Of the total 8,613,000,000 won in highway tolls left uncollected last year, 4,537,000,000 won (52.7%) was from vehicles with 20 or more missed payments. This means a small group of habitual offenders is responsible for nearly half of the total unpaid tolls.

Korea Expressway Corporation has decided to impose up to ten times the regular toll amount as an additional surcharge on vehicles failing to pay tolls more than 20 times in a year. In addition, the corporation has implemented tough collection measures such as seizing vehicles or bank accounts, on-site enforcement, and criminal prosecution. Between 2024 and 2025, there were 1,925,000 cases of vehicle seizure, 484,000 cases of bank account seizure, 193,000 cases of on-site enforcement, and 117,000 cases of criminal prosecution. Despite these strong collection efforts, the number of habitual non-paying vehicles continues to rise, and the collection rate for additional surcharges remains low. The collection rate for these surcharges dropped from 49.9% in 2024 to just 37.4% last year.

Korea Expressway Corporation explained that, after going through procedures such as notification and compulsory collection, the collection rate is around 94% at the five-year mark after the non-payment occurs. In effect, a significant portion is eventually recovered; however, as it often takes several years to collect, the burden of collection costs and issues of fairness for timely payers remain unresolved. The corporation is also pushing to introduce a license plate suspension system for vehicles with repeated delinquencies.

Assemblyman Jung Il-young stated, "Most people pay their tolls faithfully, so allowing vehicles to repeatedly evade payments is unfair," adding, "It is necessary to review whether the current collection methods are functioning properly and to improve the system so that repeated non-payment is reduced and actual payment is ensured."

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