Chapter 37 Chapter 8: Problem Solving——3 Antarctic People's Tears of Joy

At a time when the tax reform pilot work is becoming more and more popular, and stories of backlash are constantly emerging from various places, a piece of sensational news spread in Ningguo City, a wealthy city in the south of the Yangtze River: 38 households in Nanji Township were playing with hickory nuts. The farmers took the township government to court. Then, more detailed news came out, saying that not only 38 households wanted to sue the township government, but 318 households to be precise; that the farmers not only sued the township government, but also the defendants There are also the Ningguo City Finance Bureau and the Forestry Bureau; they also said that the farmers were afraid that the Ningguo local court would be unfair, so they directly brought the lawsuit to the Intermediate People's Court of Xuancheng District.The District Court considers that this is the first case in the region and even in the whole province that the peasants in Anji Township sued the township government for the forced collection of taxes and fees during the pilot period of rural tax and fee reform in the province, and there are a large number of plaintiffs. The impact is relatively large, and it will be accepted according to the regulations, but they are thinking that so many farmers will go from Ningguo's Antarctic Township to Xuanzhou City to file a lawsuit, which will cost too much, and the lawsuit is another matter, so there is no need With so many people appearing in court together, it is enough to introduce some representatives. This is still in consideration of reducing the burden on farmers, so it has become the current thirty-eight households.

The people's court, according to the law to protect the reform of rural taxes and fees, this matter itself is the biggest news! The circumstances of the case are special, but the case itself is not complicated.It turned out that as early as mid-November 1998, in order to do a good job in the pilot work of collecting agricultural specialty taxes, the Ningguo Municipal Government once organized a working group to go to Antarctic Township, which is rich in hickory nuts, to investigate the tax sources of hickory nuts in the whole township. A comprehensive census was conducted.However, the census belonged to the census, and the figures for the agricultural special product tax collection plan were still issued layer by layer. Ningguo City had to still assign taxation tasks as in previous years. This task obviously differed greatly from the conclusion of the census.That is to say, if the collection is based on the situation found in the last census, Antarctic Township will not be able to complete the tasks that have been dealt. Villages, and then the villages follow the same method, and finally apportioned to households.

Every year, the Anji township government does this, and they don't think there is anything wrong with it; the farmers who play with hickory nuts have also paid in this way in the past. Although they are dissatisfied, their arms can't twist their thighs, so they just accept it.Now that the policy of rural tax and fee reform has been in close contact with farmers, the situation is somewhat different. Not collecting taxes according to the actual output, first of all deviates from the policy of tax and fee reform. What's more, after receiving the tax collection notice, I found that on the tax collection list of hickory special agricultural products, it was also marked with "forestry cultivation fund" In this way, the taxes and fees are mixed, and the "carriage charges" are collected; and some even collect the agricultural tax and the agricultural special product tax repeatedly, which is obviously doing nonsense.

The peasants were so angry that they scolded angrily: "The good policies of the party are all bad for these crooked monks!" The "Notice of Approval of Taxable Output of Agricultural Special Products" issued by the township government is clearly printed, and farmers check The first person to shoot the case was Wu Shentian, a 36-year-old young farmer from the Xiahong Villager Group of Nanji Village.First, he wrote the review application, and then more than 20 villagers signed the application one after another.However, when they handed over the written report to township cadres Cheng Guiping and Tang Chengquan, they refused to accept it.This angered all the farmers in the Xiahong village group, and they returned all the property verification notices issued to each household to the township government.

Then all the farmers in Lianhe Village also returned the verification notices. Soon, the situation further expanded.Twenty-six villagers from the Liwu Villager Group of Guanling Village also submitted the "Application Report for Realistic Collection of Special Agricultural Products Tax" to the township government; not long after, another 70 villagers in Guanling wrote the report again. At this time, the farmers in Anji Township were already very passionate, and they strongly demanded a written report on the verification of the hickory production. One after another, they asked the township government to re-check the hickory production in order to reduce the heavy burden on the villagers caused by the forced quota. .

However, all the application reports were thrown into the sea like mud. The township government neither intends to re-approve the actual production of hickory nuts in the township, let alone give any explanation. This makes the already intensified conflict between the cadres and the masses worsen rapidly.However, the Anji township government is not afraid of this deterioration of relations between cadres and the masses.When the hickory nuts of many farmers had just begun to be harvested and had not been sold, the township began to act.Although the central government has repeatedly emphasized that it is strictly forbidden to use dictatorship tools and means to collect money and goods from farmers, they still organize expropriation working groups with the participation of judicial organs to forcibly expropriate.A time limit has also been set. If the time limit is exceeded by one day, the taxable price of hickory nuts will increase from 8 yuan per catty to 13 yuan; Those who express dissatisfaction with the price will break into the house to grab food to offset the tax, or seize things to offset the tax;

Many villagers thought of going to the city or region to appeal to the higher authorities to intervene; "Focus Interview" to get in touch and ask journalists to come down and expose.However, many people have calmed down and made a serious analysis. They feel that this pilot reform of rural taxes and fees was personally deployed by the central government. Officials already have laws to follow. Could it be said that the elders of Nanji Township are not even as good as "Qiu Ju"?It's no harm to learn from Qiu Ju's lawsuit!Didn't you say "everyone is equal before the law"?Let's try to see if this is true!

The first person to stand up in public was Wu Yunling, a 46-year-old red-faced man from the Xiahong Villager Group of Nanji Village who was forcibly used to pay taxes with hickory nuts and whose wife was also arrested by the township government.Wu Yunling took the lead, and then like a snowball, 318 peasant households stood up and wanted to go to court with the Anji Township government. Knowing how to use legal weapons to defend their legitimate rights and interests, no matter how you look at it, this is a remarkable progress for Chinese farmers.Of course, it is also commendable that the Xuancheng District Court quickly accepted the case in accordance with the law. President Liu Shundao attached great importance to it. Nanji Township of Ningguo City went to coordinate the matter, and when the coordination failed, it required the plaintiff to amend the content of the complaint and submit supplementary evidence for prosecution in accordance with the law.

In its statement of defense, the Nanji Township government avoided mentioning the fact that the judicial authorities participated in the collection working group, arguing that the specific administrative actions of the township finance department to collect agricultural specialty taxes complied with the law, and that the tax payment receipts issued to the villagers were uniformly printed by the Finance Department. system, and affixed with the "Special Seal of the People's Government of Anji Township", the tax collected is still in the financial treasury, which cannot be said to be an act of arbitrary collection; let alone talk about the tax reform policy of the central government, arguing that Ningguo In the past, the municipal government required the financial and forestry departments to collect agricultural special property taxes and forestry funds on their behalf, and adopted a one-ticket collection method. It is not a "ride fare".It only admitted that in the process of tax collection, "it is inevitable that there are deficiencies or even mistakes, which should be supervised by the masses and improved in time", but still argued: "It is legal to take coercive measures against a small number of tax resisters."

In Xuancheng, which is famous for producing rice paper among the "Four Treasures of the Study", we interviewed the sponsor of this case, Chen Weidong, at the district court.President Chen Weidong said that to handle such an administrative lawsuit, judges must not only master the relevant laws passed by the National People's Congress, but also be familiar with the administrative regulations formulated by relevant state departments and local governments. In particular, judging from this case, The central government has deployed Anhui as a pilot province for tax reform, so it is even more necessary to be familiar with the policy of tax and fee reform.In short, he believes that it is the historical mission of the people's judges to escort the reform of rural taxes and fees in accordance with the law!

When we arrived in Xuancheng, the sentencing meeting had just been held. Chen Weidong said that after obtaining evidence and cross-examining the case in court, the collegial panel finally concluded that the defendant’s Nanji Township People’s Government’s proving materials related to the statistics of the hickory production in Nanji Township , which are only general annual statistics or proof of production forecast and estimation, and cannot be used as the basis for verifying the actual harvest of hickory nuts by farmers. The plaintiff’s reason for questioning is valid and accepted; Even if the objection is raised, the reasons for the challenge cannot be established. On the day of the public sentencing, it was catching up with a heavy rain in early summer.Five or six hundred farmers from Anji Township packed nine buses and braved the wind and rain to arrive at Xuancheng.As soon as the presiding judge Chen Weidong saw so many people, it was impossible to let everyone into the courtroom. Fearing that there would be some accident, he rushed up and said that you know how to protect your legal rights according to the law. Therefore, I hope that those who can appear in court today, and those who cannot appear in court, can also try their best to show the good qualities of today's farmers and abide by the discipline of the court as an example.After Chen Weidong's mobilization, he found that the peasants standing in the rainy land were in order immediately.Only one farmer squeezed out impulsively, and was about to propose something to him, but was immediately opposed by everyone.This scene made Chen Weidong feel unspeakably moved. When reading the 24-page "Judgment", Chen Weidong took a peek at the representatives of the farmers standing in the auditorium. Noisy, even if it's just a slight cough. The sensational lawsuit against the officials by the Antarctic villagers in Ningguo City ended with the victory of the people and the defeat of the officials.The Intermediate People's Court of Xuancheng District ruled that the People's Government of Nanji Township re-approved the specific administrative act of taxation; it declared that the compulsory collection was illegal, and the behavior of failing to collect forestation funds in accordance with the regulations was also illegal; the acceptance fee of this case was fully borne by the People's Government of Nanji Township. At the end of the verdict, Zhou Xiaoping, the deputy mayor of Nanji Township, was in tears. He obviously felt aggrieved and confused; because in the future, the Nanji Township government will still not be able to "accurately collect" agricultural specialty taxes in accordance with the regulations, and some tasks are simply Apportioned from above.Many farmer representatives burst into tears. They had been wronged and angry. Now when they rushed out of the court and joined the black farmers standing in the heavy rain, they couldn't tell the difference between the tears flowing on their faces. , Rain, or tears, because they used the weapon of law to successfully resist the township government's arbitrary collection of taxes and fees!