The number of vehicles that have not paid highway tolls more than 20 times exceeds 370,000... Accounts for 42.9% of unpaid amount

Accounts for 5.7% of all unpaid vehicles, but accounts for 42.9% of unpaid amounts.

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Park Jae-ha = It was found that the number of 'habitually non-paying' vehicles that did not pay highway tolls more than 20 times increased every year, exceeding 370,000 last year.

According to data submitted by the Korea Expressway Corporation to Rep. Jeong Il-young of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee of the National Assembly, on the 25th, the number of vehicles that failed to pay highway tolls more than 20 times last year was 374,000. This is a 2.2-fold increase in 4 years from 170,000 units in 2021.

Last year, the total tolls not paid by these vehicles amounted to 42.672 billion won. Vehicles that have missed payments more than 20 times account for only 5.7% of the total, but the unpaid amount accounts for 42.9%.

Furthermore, out of the total unpaid amount of 8.613 billion won last year, the amount that could not be collected from unpaid vehicles more than 20 times amounted to 4.537 billion won (52.7%).

Accordingly, the Korea Expressway Corporation imposes up to 10 times the additional toll on vehicles that do not pay the toll more than 20 times a year and is taking high-intensity collection measures such as confiscating vehicles and deposits, on-site crackdowns, and criminal charges. However, the number of vehicles with habitual non-payment is increasing and the collection rate of the additional toll is low.

The number of vehicles with more than 20 non-payments increased by approximately 16.9% from 320,000 in 2024 to 374,000 in 2025. During the same period, 73.101 billion won in additional tolls were imposed, but the actual amount paid was 31.603 billion won, or only 43.2%. In particular, the acceptance rate fell from 49.9% in 2024 to 37.4% last year.

Rep. Jeong Il-young said, “We need to check whether the current collection method is working properly and improve the system to reduce repeated non-payment and lead to actual payment.”