Warning Signs of a Hidden Rebound in Farmers' Burdens Need Attention
The fundamental solution to lightening farmers' burdens is to continue deepening comprehensive rural reform and eliminate the institutional and systemic factors that cause the problem of farmers' burdens
“statistical information consultation fee 2000 yuan” “work safety training fee 200 yuan” “librarian training fee 500 yuan” “public security joint defense sponsorship fee 2000 yuan” “going to a designated place to engrave the village committee's official seal, each seal charged 190 yuan” “primary school cook's salary 2000 yuan” “carrying out the ‘public security dual insurance’ project and collecting insurance fees from village-level organizations at 10 yuan per household and public security personnel fees at 26 yuan per household”……
If you don't look, you won't know; once you look, you get a shock. These numerous “miscellaneous fees” paid by village-level organizations appear in the Ministry of Agriculture's recently published “Notice on the 2013 Inspection of Farmers' Burdens.” The inspection results of a joint inspection team composed of 6 departments under the State Council's joint conference on lightening farmers' burdens, regarding the burden situation of farmers in Heilongjiang, Anhui, and Shandong provinces, show that the problem of inadequate implementation of burden-reducing and benefit-farming policies still exists in some places, and the burden on village-level organizations is showing an increasing trend.
Since China abolished the agricultural tax in 2006, farmers' burdens have been greatly reduced. But this does not mean that farmers' burdens no longer exist. In some places, new situations and new problems have appeared in farmers' burdens, and in recent years there has been a trend of “hidden” rebound. For example, some have shifted the past arbitrary fees and apportionments charged to farmers toward new types of agricultural operating entities and village-level organizations; some have developed village-level public welfare undertakings beyond farmers' capacity to bear, taking on debt to carry out construction; some, when implementing policies to strengthen agriculture, benefit farmers, and enrich farmers, deduct fees against farmers' wishes; and some have invented various pretexts and changed methods to arbitrarily charge farmers.
Why does the farmers' burden have a “hidden” rebound? From a deeper perspective, the institutional and systemic factors causing farmers' burdens have not yet been completely eliminated. The long-standing urban-rural dual structure has caused rural development to lag noticeably behind urban development, the investment mechanism for rural infrastructure and public services is unsound, and the investment responsibilities of governments at all levels and farmers have not been clearly defined. In addition, some departments do not strictly implement policies, and some, for the sake of departmental interests, encroach on farmers' interests, aggravating farmers' burdens.
Reducing burdens is not easy, and ensuring that farmers' burdens do not rebound is even harder. This “Notice” shows us the long-term, complex, and arduous nature of lightening farmers' burdens. This year's Central Document No. 1 emphasized “resolutely investigating and correcting corruption problems in agriculture-related fields that harm the interests of the masses and acts that aggravate farmers' burdens.” The issue of farmers' burdens concerns farmers' vital interests, and local governments everywhere must attach great importance to the work of lightening farmers' burdens. Only by improving and strictly implementing all systems for lightening farmers' burdens, expanding the scope of comprehensive governance of farmers' burdens, and truly establishing a long-term mechanism for supervising farmers' burdens can burdens be effectively controlled and rebounds prevented.
The fundamental solution to lightening farmers' burdens lies in continuing to deepen comprehensive rural reform and eliminate the institutional and systemic factors that cause the problem of farmers' burdens. Only by persisting in deepening reform, coordinating urban and rural development, and gradually achieving equalization of basic public services between urban and rural areas and among regions can the problem of farmers' burdens be fundamentally solved. Governments at all levels must continue to increase investment in rural infrastructure and public services, raise the proportion of central investment subsidies for rural public welfare construction projects, and let the sunshine of public finance shine more on rural areas.
For prominent new problems emerging in the work of lightening farmers' burdens, supervision must be strengthened and key governance carried out. Strengthen supervision of the burdens on new types of agricultural operating entities such as family farms, specialized large households, and farmers' cooperatives, and prevent arbitrary agriculture-related fees from breeding and spreading in new fields.