The replacement of the payment of fees in rural areas with legalized
taxes is being heralded as a major rural reform in discussions
being held by the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC), which
is in session this week.
The reform, piloted
in Anhui Province in 2000, freed farmers from a long list
of exorbitant fees and required them to pay only an agricultural
tax, some surtaxes and a special agricultural product tax,
according to Zhu Yuming, one of the Anhui NPC delegates.
The East China
province, famous for its bold initiative more than 20 years
ago with a household responsibility system - which was later
adopted nationwide- has once again become a pace-setter, working
out a system to reduce the excessive burdens on farmers.
In addition to
paying legal taxes, Chinese farmers in many regions are subject
to numerous fees, fund-collecting projects and fines imposed
under various pretexts by local authorities, Xiong Jiazhen,
an NPC deputy from Hubei Province, said yesterday.
For example, legal
taxes for Huaiyuan County of Anhui Province have been averaging
26.6 million yuan (US$3.2 million) a year. But before the
reform replacing fees with taxes launched, the 1.1 million
farmers in the county had to pay 80.8 million yuan (US$9.7
million) in fees a year, according to statistics from the
county government.
As an NPC deputy,
Zhu said he had conducted extensive investigations in rural
areas before heading for Beijing to attend the on-going Fourth
Session of the Ninth NPC.
Zhu said the reform
replacing fees with taxes had helped cut the per capita tax
and fee load on farmers by 31 percent to 75.5 yuan (US$9)
on average - from 109.4 yuan (US$13) before the reform was
launched. The cuts included cancellation of 50 fee and fund-raising
items.
The new arrangements
have brought immense satisfaction to farmers and are instrumental
in improving the once strained relations between the farmers
and the local governments, he said.
Premier Zhu Rongji,
in his report on the outline for the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05)
at the opening of the NPC session on Monday, endorsed that
the fee elimination scheme as "a sound policy for safeguarding
the legitimate rights and interests of farmers and reducing
their burden."
But deputy Zhu
Yuming cautioned that the government could by no means say
that it had scored a success in this unprecedented reform.
"The tax-for-fees
pilot project in Anhui has chalked up some positive results,
but there is still a long way to go to keep the farmers satisfied
- over the long term - by stabilizing current tax levels and
instituting supporting policies to consolidate the achievements,"
Zhu said.
Some obvious problems
have arisen because of the reduced revenues for township governments
as a result of the elimination of fees, said Jiang Zuojun,
another NPC deputy and also vice-governor of Anhui Province.
He said the daily
operation of governments at the township level and even rural
compulsory education, which used to depend on fees, have met
with financial shortages.
The province also
launched rural reforms including streamlining township governments,
reducing the number of village and group functionaries receiving
government subsidies and dissolving or merging some towns
and villages, Jiang said.
(China Daily 03/08/2001)
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