Chapter 32 Chapter 7: Great Mission from Heaven——6 "Document No. 13" was born

In the more than a year since June 1995, China's media organizations have produced quite a climax in publicizing the reform of rural taxes and fees.From "China Reform News", "China Discipline Inspection and Supervision News" to "China Economic Times", "Economic Daily" to "People's Daily"; from "Internal Reference", "Study and Research Reference" to "Domestic Dynamic Proof", until " Leadership Decision-Making Reference”, the articles praising this reform can be said to be numerous. In the autumn of 1996, Li Lanqing, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council, visited Henan.When he learned that some places were charging farmers indiscriminately in the name of education, but in the end they didn't spend all the money on education, which aroused his uneasiness.During the inspection, he also learned that the current charging methods in the villages and townships in rural areas are too arbitrary. The linking of vital interests has led to repeated prohibition of the "three chaos" in the countryside, which has become a persistent problem.So he thought that this might have to be considered from the perspective of whether this charging method is feasible.

To his surprise, during his inspection in Henan, Li Lanqing heard that some villages have implemented a standardized management method of combining taxes and fees. This method is not only welcomed by farmers, but also guarantees all kinds of funds. Come see for yourself.Hearing that this incident happened in the neighboring Fuyang area of ​​Anhui Province, he made an impromptu decision to change his itinerary and head to Fuyang.In Fuyang, he listened to a special report from Wang Huaizhong, then secretary of the prefectural party committee, and Qiao Chuanxiu, commissioner.After listening to it, I think this method is really good.From the report, he further learned that several old comrades of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference also went to the countryside of Fuyang to conduct investigations and research in this area. After returning to Beijing, he sent someone to ask for their investigation materials.After reading it, he felt that it was quite valuable, so he sent the materials to Premier Li Peng with his own opinions, and also sent them to Vice Premiers Zhu Rongji, Zou Jiahua, Wu Bangguo, and Jiang Chunyun for their reference.

In fact, it was Wang Yuzhao, the former governor of Anhui Province and executive deputy director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, who prompted several veteran comrades of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference to go deep into the countryside to conduct investigations.As we mentioned earlier, in the thrilling years that opened the prelude to China’s rural reforms, Wang Yuzhao was a general under Wan Li’s command, and later served as the deputy director of the Central Rural Policy Research Office and the Rural Development Research Center of the State Council. It can be said that, He experienced the whole process of China's rural reform in the late 1970s and early 1980s.And to this day, he still enjoys paying attention to China's "three rural" issues.

Beginning in April 1995, several old ministers in the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, who had long been engaged in economic work in the leading organs of the state, formed a special group, focusing on the current hot issue of "reducing the burden" of farmers , Under the leadership of Wang Yuzhao, he went to Anhui, Hebei and other places to conduct serious investigation and research; after returning to Beijing, he held discussions with comrades from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance, the National Bureau of Statistics and other relevant departments.In order to learn about opinions and suggestions from all walks of life on a larger scale, in midsummer July, the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference also held eight conferences in Leshan City, Sichuan Province, including Anhui, Hebei, Henan, Hunan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Jilin and Guangxi. "Seminar on Reducing Farmers' Burden" attended by relevant provincial and regional departments.Focusing on the study of the pilot reforms to reduce the burden on farmers in some places in recent years, explore the way out and methods to fundamentally solve the problem of burden on farmers.

The group of eight people in the thematic group felt very heavy along the way.The survey found that in recent years, due to excessive and unrealistic promotion activities in various places, the number of cadres in grassroots party and government organizations has been seriously out of control. In some places, a small number of cadres even extorted money. Batch of vicious cases.In particular, it was found that the growth rate of the burden on farmers greatly exceeded the growth rate of farmers' income, and the agricultural provinces in central China, which are the main grain sources of the country, had a heavy purchase task of grain and cotton, and the actual income of farmers was greatly discounted; However, the state originally wanted to reduce the burden on farmers by controlling the "three mentions and five unified fees" within 5% of the per capita net income of farmers in the township as a unit in the previous year. To a certain extent, it has the negative effect of "robbing the poor and helping the rich", but instead increases the burden on low-income farmers, making it worse!

Whenever they come into contact with these heavy topics, the comrades in the special group feel extremely depressed.It was only when I saw with my own eyes that Taihe County of Anhui Province and Zhengding County of Hebei Province are carrying out pilot reforms, and heard with my own ears that these reforms were welcomed by farmers and all walks of life, that I felt a little gratified from the bottom of my heart. Later, through discussions and exchanges with relevant national ministries and bureaus, and after in-depth research at the Leshan Conference, Wang Yuzhao personally presided over the writing of "Suggestions on Effectively Solving the Problem of Farmers' Burden".The Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference also held an enlarged meeting of directors in Beijing for this purpose, and conducted a serious review of the "Proposal".

In this "Proposal", Wang Yuzhao believes that the most fundamental way to solve the burden on farmers is to develop the rural economy, increase farmers' income, and improve farmers' wealth.In order to truly control the burden of farmers within a reasonable range, we must fundamentally reform and improve the agricultural tax collection and management system, and resolutely block the source of increasing farmers' burden.Various surveys have shown that the burden on farmers is too heavy, which is often directly related to the high and hasty requirements of the government when setting development goals. Therefore, the key to solving the problem lies in the above.

The "Proposal" is almost loudly calling out: We must resolutely clean up those unrealistic standard-reaching and upgrading activities, and resolutely ban any activities that increase the burden on farmers. The "Proposal" has very specific suggestions: if it is proposed to speed up the formulation of the "Rural Tax and Fee Collection and Management Law", strengthen the construction of rural tax and fee collection and management teams, and never allow the use of public security police or militia squads to collect taxes and fees; if it is proposed to resolutely Simplify the organization and reform the assessment system for cadres; if it is proposed to consider the establishment of farmers' own mass organizations on the basis of various existing economic and technical associations, to communicate the relationship between the government and farmers, so as to facilitate the implementation of various national policies and decrees, It is also conducive to truly safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of farmers...

Li Ruihuan, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, has always been very concerned about the work of reducing the burden on farmers. He was very happy to read the report deliberated and approved by the enlarged meeting of directors of the Economic Committee.On this day, he made an appointment with Wang Yuzhao, and made it clear: "I completely agree with your suggestions. If there is a need for a consultation meeting, please invite Comrade Li Peng to participate, and I will preside over it."

Li Ruihuan also instructed to send the "Proposal" to the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council respectively. After the "Proposal" from the Economic Committee of the CPPCC was sent out according to the organizational procedures, Wang Yuzhao's mood was still difficult to calm down.He considered that among the leaders of the central government, Wen Jiabao was the one who traveled the most to rural areas in various places, so he was also the one who was most familiar with rural work in China, so he sent a copy directly to Wen Jiabao in his own name.

Of course, Wang Yuzhao did not know that his report had been sent directly to Premier Li Peng and several other vice premiers by Vice Premier Li Lanqing as early as ten days ago. What's more, after reading the report sent by Li Lanqing, Vice Premier Jiang Chunyun has already forwarded it to Wen Jiabao, and expressed his opinion: "Comrade Jiabao, please read and approve the drafting group to study carefully." At this time, a drafting group led by Wen Jiabao The group is drafting an important document for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on reducing the burden on farmers. Wen Jiabao received both of the "Proposals". He and Jiang Chunyun shared the same views, believing that they are of great reference value for a decision that is being drafted by the Party Central Committee and the State Council to be promulgated.Ordinarily, this matter has already been approved by Wen Jiabao, and there is no need to deal with the "Suggestions" submitted by Wang Yuzhao personally. However, he is a meticulous person who does things meticulously. Writing brush, forwarded the "Proposal" to Liu Jimin, Deputy Secretary-General of the State Council, and Wan Baorui, Vice Minister of Agriculture, and wrote a few more sentences.His instructions, every word, are well written, even the punctuation marks are not sloppy, as rigorous and serious as any work he has dealt with before: "Comrade Jimin and Comrade Baorui: This proposal formed by the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference on the basis of investigation and research has important reference value for the study and solution of the burden on farmers. Many of these good opinions were drafted by the Central Committee on reducing the burden on farmers It has been absorbed in the document on the problem; some directional reform measures are also being actively piloted. Please report these situations to the CPPCC and Comrade Yu Zhao." Shortly after the "Proposal" written by Wang Yuzhao was sent to the State Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Central Rural Work Leading Group Office took the lead and included the State Planning Commission, the State Restructuring Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the State Grain Reserve The joint investigation team participated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and CCTV soon went to Hebei Province, which is the closest to Beijing, to conduct a special investigation on the reform of the agricultural tax system.Li Bingliang, deputy secretary of the provincial party committee who returned from studying at the Central Party School, received all the comrades of the investigation team, and reported on the reform of the public grain system in Hebei Province over the past three years, and also accepted an interview with CCTV. During this period, an encouraging news was quietly circulated in the vast rural areas of Anhui: General Secretary Jiang Zemin sent a secretary to Taihe County, Anhui Province, which was the first to carry out a pilot reform of rural taxes and fees.The secretary went to villages and households in various places in Taihe County. Wherever he went, he listened carefully and read carefully. While listening and reading, he carefully recorded in the notebook.At the end, the leaders of the Taihe County Party Committee and the county government hoped that he could talk about his views and opinions after the investigation, but the secretary just smiled modestly and said: "My task is to watch and listen, and then go back. Report truthfully." On December 30, 1996, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the most famous "Document No. 13" on reducing the burden on farmers: "Decision on Doing a Good Job in Reducing Farmers' Burden".This "Decision" specifically proposed the "three reductions": reducing the tax burden on poor households, reducing the burden on township enterprises, and reducing the expenses of township institutions and personnel; It is strictly forbidden to engage in fund-raising activities in rural areas that are not stipulated by the law, and it is strictly forbidden to charge farmers indiscriminately, to increase prices, to impose fines, to apportion all kinds of behaviors, and to use dictatorship tools and means to collect money from farmers. and put forward "two strengthenings": strengthen leadership and implement the party and government leader responsibility system to reduce the burden on farmers; strengthen supervision and inspection, and seriously investigate and deal with violations of laws and disciplines that increase the burden on farmers. The "Decision" specifically pointed out: "To fundamentally solve the problem of farmers' burdens, we must persist in deepening reforms, and we can continue to experiment with the burden distribution in some places and the exploration of tax and fee reforms in some major grain-producing areas." This is the first time that the Central Committee of the Party and the State Council publicly expressed their affirmative opinions on the ongoing experiment of rural tax and fee reform in the "red head document"! On the fourteenth day after the "No. 13 Document" was issued, that is, on January 13, 1997, Wen Jiabao delivered an important speech on the reform of rural taxes and fees at the National Rural Work Conference on behalf of the Central Committee. He said: "In recent years, some major grain-producing areas, mainly 50 counties in seven provinces including Anhui and Hebei, have carried out pilot reforms of rural taxes and fees within a certain range, which has achieved certain results and accumulated some beneficial benefits. Experience. The central government believes that this reform can continue to be tested, but it is not suitable to be widely promoted at present. It is mainly based on two considerations: this reform has touched some deep-seated institutional problems, and it involves some major reform directions. Continue to reform It must be considered as a whole with the reform of the current grain purchase and sales system and the reform of the fiscal and taxation system centered on agricultural tax. This matter involves a wide range of areas and is relatively complicated, requiring a comprehensive design plan. The pilot work must be carried out under leadership, and the places that have been approved to carry out the pilot , try it carefully, and pay attention to summing up experience.” Wen Jiabao not only affirmed the beneficial experience accumulated in the pilot reform of taxes and fees in various places, but also pointed out that this reform touches on deep-seated system problems and involves major reform directions, so a comprehensive design plan is required. Wen Jiabao's speech was inspiring and inspiring; his interpretation of the reform of rural taxes and fees is even more far-sighted and penetrating!