Year: at the first session of the 10th CPPCC National Committee held in 2003

Proposal No: 2415

Proposers: national political advisers Xu Kunyuan and Zheng Zukang

Content: 

Increasing incomes of farmers and easing their burdens are essential to economic development and stability of rural areas, as is stimulating domestic demand and benefiting economic and social development of the country. We think exempting the agricultural tax is an effective measure. 

1. China has a large population but relatively small farmlands. Effective farmland per capita is less than 1 mu (0.066 hectares). Such limited farmland can only support the basic life of farmers, with seldom anything remaining. 

2. Almost all developed countries give fiscal subsidies and protective policies to their agricultural industries. 

3. Tax expenditures of farmers nationwide reaches about 120 billion yuan, of which about 40 billion yuan is agricultural tax. The agricultural tax is not helpful for farmers  and has restrained development of rural economy.   

4. Exemption of agricultural tax helps to facilitate operation of lands and urbanization of rural population, and helps in transfer of land resources.   

5. Exemption also helps shorten the gap between urban and rural areas and stimulates domestic demands.

Besides, farmers in some regions also have to pay for education, infrastructure and public facilities. We suggest exempting agricultural tax for the above reasons. Considering the difficulty in national finance, we can exempt the tax in western areas first, and then in central and eastern areas.