SEOUL, KOREA - The total expenses spent for entertainment by Korea's companies last year were almost 7 trillion won.

 

According to Chaebol.com on January 14 based on data gathered from the Economic Statistics System provided by the Bank of Korea and the corporate financial data compiled by the Small and Medium Business Administration, the total entertainment expenses, including those from junkets, parties, and the like, was 6.6 trillion won in 2012.

 

Given the total sales revenue posted by all corporations during the same period was 3,450.8 trillion won, it is equivalent to 0.19 percent of the aggregate sales revenue. One must be careful, however, about the definition used in the study. The entertainment expenses in this case included items belonging to the "management expense" category, which is slightly different from entertainment expense as defined by the National Tax Service.

 

According to the data, the total entertainment expenses have declined in its share in the sales revenue, although its absolute amount has increased. The percentage of entertainment expenses in the total corporate sales revenue were 0.22 percent (5.6 trillion won) in 2009, followed by 0.21 and 0.20 percent in 2010 and 2011. By size, the share of entertainment expenses by small and medium-sized enterprises were five times higher than those for large corporations.