Chapter 15 Chapter Four: How the Scale Tilts——2 Taxes and fees are as high as the mark and the price is higher

In the past two years, we have been tirelessly running between the rice fields in the land of Anhui and Anhui, trying to figure out a question that puzzles us: How many taxes and fees are collected from farmers?It was only later discovered that this was an event that no one could explain clearly, and there were so many names that it was shocking! According to the statistics of the Central Farmers’ Burden Supervision and Management Department, there are as many as 93 documents and projects related to farmers’ burdens, such as charges, funds, and fund-raising formulated by central agencies and departments alone, involving 20 There are four national ministries, commissions, offices, and bureaus; while local governments have set up as many as 269 charging items; there are also a large number of "ride-hailing" charges that cannot be counted.

During our investigation, we found that many village cadres simply did whatever they wanted.Some of them, you can feel the absurdity as soon as you hear them, and some even have a bit of black humor, which seems to be a joke, but you are not allowed to pay less than a penny. Although we have covered more than 50 counties (cities) in Anhui Province in a carpet-like manner, now we sit down and count the subjects borne by the peasants, but we can only "measure stones with liters". Fund-raising categories include: building township office buildings; building township teaching buildings; building township science and technology networks; building township medical outpatient departments; Raising funds for the construction of township theaters; building township enterprises; improving the township environment and combating criminal crimes, etc.

The expenses of village cadres and non-production personnel include: quota subsidies for Party branch secretary, director of village committee, and accountant; allowance for missed work for militia company commander, public security committee member, regiment branch secretary, women director, and village group leader; veterinarians, agricultural technicians Subsidies for broadcasters, forest rangers, slope guards, newspaper deliverers, and sanitation personnel; subsidies for electricians, plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers, and all handymen arranged in the village, etc. Educational expenses include: salaries of private teachers; subsidies for public teachers; school building construction and renovation costs; normal school office expenses; newspapers, books and materials; teaching instruments and cultural and sports equipment, etc.

Family planning expenses include: health care expenses for the only child; nutrition expenses for birth control operations; subsidies for family planning committee members; subsidies for family planning teams, etc. Militia training expenses include: living allowances for militia training; subsidies for lost work during militia training; Public welfare undertakings and preferential care expenditures include: construction of nursing homes; subsidies for service personnel in nursing homes; construction of cooperative medical care; subsidies for rural medical personnel; preferential treatment for martyrs; preferential treatment for disabled soldiers; preferential treatment for families of active conscripts; Care for households in need; care for households with five guarantees, etc.

In addition, there are subsidies for traffic construction volunteers; construction labor subsidies for civilized villages; road construction fees for street construction, homestead planning fees, housing approval fees; seed quarantine fees, livestock and poultry epidemic prevention fees, livestock maintenance fees, wire erection fees, Unified rodent control fees; and the purchase of walkie-talkies and motorcycles for police stations, and clothing for judicial officers... In some places, the township schools only charge sponsorship fees, tutoring fees, test paper fees, materials fees, and broom fees; just feeding pigs has hog tax, slaughter tax, value-added tax, income tax, and urban construction tax. Many villages and towns don’t care about you. Whether or not to raise pigs, the pig head tax must be levied on a head-by-head basis.

Not only that, but almost all agriculture-related departments, those included in the sequence of government agencies and those not listed but undertaking government functions, especially the departments of grain, supply and marketing, and finance, have mostly become government departments with the deepening of reform and opening up. Organizations that do not separate enterprises and have a clear tendency to be corporate, have the dual functions of implementing policies and increasing profits, often ignoring national laws, regulations, and policies and regulations formulated in accordance with the law, and forcibly charging for business activities that should not be charged, or taking a ride Fees, which have increased the various burdens on farmers.

Our investigation also found that some townships have to collect 14 fees just for marriage registration.In addition to the cost of the marriage certificate, there are also introduction letter fees, marriage notarization fees, pre-marital inspection fees, maternal and child health care fees, one-child security deposits, wedding banquet consumption fees, pig slaughtering fees, wedding greening fees, children's playground preparation fees, planning fees, etc. Maternity security deposit, late childbearing security deposit, conjugal love security deposit, golden wedding security deposit, etc.

Since the country promulgated the "Environmental Protection Law", some places even regarded the smoke from farmers' cooking pots as "environmental pollution", and plausibly levied "pollutant discharge fees" on each household.Some peasants who dared to speak out went to the village cadres to ask for an explanation. It lies in the attitude", how much to levy depends on whether the "attitude" is good or bad. Some of them simply don’t say anything, and ask for money. Whoever dares to say no, or frowns and stares, immediately fights until you call you uncle.

When a kind of power is driven by direct interests, the expansion of the desire for profit will inevitably alienate the power into a devil that runs at an accelerated speed, and will inevitably lead to the infinite expansion of its power. Today, management is charging, which has become a stubborn disease of many departments. Since the various taxes and fees levied on farmers have brought benefits to many party and government agencies and institutions, and many tax and fee items were approved by the central government agencies in "red-headed documents", therefore, the notice to reduce the burden on farmers, Regulations, rules, and decisions, all become "read down one level at a time, and try to communicate and fail to fulfill them."When the pressure is high, restrain yourself a little; when the limelight passes, it will come back.Therefore, in the work of reducing the burden on farmers, a term of mechanics that is often mentioned appears: rebound.The greater the pressure, the greater the resilience, and soon formed its own characteristics: that is, there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom.

According to the investigation and statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture in conjunction with the State Planning Commission, since the 1990s, the "standards" stipulated by the "red-headed documents" of the central state agency that require farmers to pay money and produce "standards" and "standards" are not called "standards" in essence. There are forty-three "standard" activities, and there are as many as seventy or eighty "standard" projects issued by local party committees and governments.Among them, education, health, culture, sports, family planning, radio and television, program-controlled telephones, national defense education, militia training, civil labor insurance, rural social service system, grassroots organization construction, transportation infrastructure, civilized village and town construction, greening projects , Comprehensive management of social security and so on.Covers almost all fields of rural work.It is as big as the inspection and acceptance of Xiaokang County, the "double basics" of education, the "primary health care" of health, the family planning service, the creation of civilized and sanitary counties, towns, and villages, etc., and the small things of ordering newspapers, eradicating rats, improving water, and toilets, etc. Up to standard.

Farmers have to pay for each item, and the collection is more than "one basket or even two baskets" of eggs! The higher-level departments work behind closed doors, come up with plans, take ideas, and press tasks. The money is nothing. Award on behalf of the allocation." The "standard" content of each item is very specific.For example, the "double bases" of education meet the standards: two-story building, six-painted, brick walls and iron gates turned into gardens.It is required to build primary schools in every village, replace mud walls with brick walls, and replace brick and wood structures with prefabricated concrete, standardize facilities, tile walls, and garden the environment.This alone can overwhelm the peasants.For another example, the standard for township police stations is the "3511 Project", that is, three people, five rooms, one motorcycle, and one walkie-talkie.In fact, when the "3511 Project" reaches the bottom, thirteen people are not enough, and three rooms become a building; a motorcycle and a walkie-talkie become a police car, and several motorcycles each "Big Brother".Another example, "every village is connected to the road", the road standard is "two": "asphalt road" and "black"; sand and stone ridge soil does not count.For another example, the radio and television department has issued a very specific "small speaker household registration rate", which makes it difficult for farmers today, because radios and televisions are relatively common in rural China today, so why insist on it? The "household rate of small speakers" is really dumbfounding. Not to mention, there are dozens of indicators for the acceptance of Xiaokang, and all of them sound important, and one of them will not pass, and each item requires farmers to pay for it. The farmers complained, and the county and township cadres also complained. The "township officials" made up a series of jingles for this: "This acceptance and that acceptance must be prepared by county and township cadres." "This is up to the standard, that is up to the standard, and the top never pays for it." "This big event, that big event, is all about the blood and sweat of farmers." When we learned about the arrears in Bagongshan Township, Shou County, we were really shocked.It can be said that Bagongshan Township is the smallest township in Anhui. It has only four administrative villages in total, and a small township. When he was the secretary of the township party committee, he couldn't even maintain the normal funds. In desperation, he went to the crematorium to borrow money. Borrowing money from the dead to pay the living, this is probably a big news that has never been heard! This ironic detail is like a cup of bitter wine, which is unacceptable.