By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
Amid efforts to cut costs to survive the global financial crisis, businesses slashed their spending on entertainment and donations last year. However, donations were reduced more than entertainment spending.
An analysis of 49 businesses among top 100 businesses that filed audit reports through the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic filing system showed that they spent 77.9 billion won on entertainment fees last year.
The other 51 did not disclose their entertainment spending, which includes expenses such as treating business partners to meals or taking them to a golf course.
The 77.9 billion won spending is a 10 percent decrease from the previous year.
Yuhan Corporation cut such spending the most, reducing entertainment fees by half to 2.5 billion won. Doosan Infracore also decreased spending by 41 percent. SK Networks and LG Life Sciences cut spending by around 30 percent each.
Businesses were required to report to the government details such as when, where, how much and on whom money was spent every time the amount surpassed 500,000 won during the former President Roh Moo-hyun administration, but the President Lee Myung-bak administration scrapped the system last year, saying it was an inconvenience to businesses.
However, some say the report system is needed to curb bribe-like entertainment services and make the economy more transparent.
While reducing entertainment spending may result in more transparency, businesses also decreased their donations.
Analysis on the 78 firms that disclosed donations among the top 100 businesses showed that they donated 744.4 billion won last year, 19.6 percent less than the previous year.
Samsung Electronics, for example, the country's biggest donator, slashed donations by 28.3 percent last year to 99.6 billion won.
POSCO, the second biggest donator, saw the figure drop by 5.7 percent to 106.4 billion won, and SK Telecom's donations plunged by 29 percent to 70.8 billion won.
Hyundai Motors, meanwhile, doubled its donations to 56.2 billion won. This includes 10 billion won for a microcredit fund to help those with poor credit ratings stand on their feet again. SK Chemical tripled its donations to 20.3 billion won.
chizpizza@koreatimes.co.kr
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