Circular of the Ministry of Agriculture on the inspection of farmers' burden in 2013

According to the arrangement of the joint meeting of the State Council on reducing farmers' burden, six departments of the joint meeting formed three inspection teams from October to November 2013 to inspect the burden of farmers in Heilongjiang, Anhui and Shandong provinces. The inspection team randomly selected 30 townships and 77 villages in 12 counties (cities and districts) by means of open and covert visits, entering villages and households, and checking accounts. Generally speaking, the party committees and governments at all levels in the three provinces attach importance to the burden reduction work, the relevant departments actively carry out the burden reduction work, the problems such as arbitrary agricultural charges and fund-raising and apportionment are significantly reduced, and the satisfaction of farmers is relatively high. However, the inspection found that the problem of inadequate implementation of the policy of reducing the burden and benefiting farmers in some places still exists, and the burden of village-level organizations shows an increasing trend. The relevant information is hereby announced as follows.

I. main work and results

The party committees and governments of Heilongjiang and other three provinces attach importance to lightening farmers' burdens, take effective measures, improve relevant systems, strengthen supervision and inspection, and achieve certain results in reducing burdens.

(1) strengthen the organization and leadership of burden reduction work, and improve the working mechanism of burden reduction. Conscientiously implement the spirit of document No. 22 issued by the State Office (2012), strengthen work guidance, innovate regulatory ideas, improve regulatory measures, and actively promote the implementation of the policy of reducing the burden and benefiting farmers. Anhui Province has established an assessment system for lightening farmers' burden, and carried out supervision and evaluation on the work of reducing farmers' burden in prefectures and cities. The secretary of the provincial party committee has given important instructions on the burden reduction work four times in one year, which has raised the degree of attention paid by the party committees and governments at all levels to the burden reduction work. Party committees and governments at all levels in Shandong Province have conscientiously implemented the work system of burden reduction and the system of "one vote veto" of farmers' burden, and cities, counties and townships have signed responsibility books for reducing burden levels, which serve as an important basis for annual assessment and appointment of cadres. Heilongjiang Province adheres to the combination of temporary treatment and permanent cure. Since 2010, the province has examined and cancelled 37 agriculture-related fee documents and projects, reduced fees to village-level organizations and farmers by 270 million yuan, and worked hard to reduce farmers' burden from the source.

(2) to implement the key management of farmers' burdens and solve the outstanding problems reflected by farmers. According to the local reality, we should organize and carry out the key management of farmers' burden, and strive to solve the problem of regional industrial farmers' burden. Anhui Province implements key monitoring over counties and cities with more problems, clearly stipulating that the main responsible persons shall not be promoted and transferred during the monitoring period, and cancel the qualification of excellent evaluation. Shandong Province has implemented comprehensive management of counties and cities with more problems in farmers' burden, established more than 40 supervision systems for farmers' burden, and reduced farmers' burden by nearly 10 million yuan. Heilongjiang Province focused on the special control of arbitrary charges and hitchhiking fees from farmers, village-level organizations and farmers' cooperatives, and refunded 3.575 million yuan of illegal fees related to agriculture.

(3) to strengthen the standardized management of everything and promote the development of public welfare undertakings at the village level. We will improve policies and measures, strengthen guidance and supervision, and strengthen the institutionalization and standardization of fund-raising and labor raising. Shandong Province has stepped up supervision and strict examination procedures, cancelled a number of non-standard and over-standard fund-raising and labor preparation projects, and reduced the burden on farmers by more than 100 million yuan. In close cooperation with the Department of Finance, the Anhui Provincial Committee of Agriculture has jointly carried out a special inspection on a case-by-case basis, which has improved the control measures of providing labor for discussion and replacing labor with capital. Heilongjiang Province carries out strict supervision over the scope of discussion, quota standards and substituting capital for labor, so as to prevent increasing the burden on farmers.

(4) to carry out supervision and inspection of farmers' burdens and promote the implementation of the policy of reducing burdens and benefiting farmers. We will continue to carry out inspections on the implementation of the policy of reducing burdens and benefiting farmers, investigate and deal with violations of regulations and disciplines, and maintain the high-pressure situation of reducing burdens. Relying on the Farmers' burden Inspection Institute, Heilongjiang Province has set up a capable and efficient special law enforcement inspection team to carry out open and covert visits throughout the province. Through the inspection and examination of the burden reduction work of 34 counties (cities and districts) in 17 cities, Shandong Province has carried out timely supervision and rectification of the problems found in 9 aspects. In 2012, a total of 335 regular and irregular inspections of farmers' burden were carried out at all levels in Anhui Province, and 465 problems related to farmers' burden were found.

(5) innovate the way of supervision and control of farmers' burden and broaden the channels for farmers to reflect their demands. Anhui Province takes the investigation and handling of farmers' burden of letters and visits as the focus of supervision, formulates measures for the investigation and handling of letters and visits, and establishes a monitoring and early warning system for farmers' burden, thus realizing the forward movement of the monitoring gate.

Heilongjiang Province has set up a supervision network for farmers' burden, giving full play to the supervision functions of publicizing policies, guiding work, exchanging experience, reporting problems, and so on. Shandong Province unblocked farmers' complaint channels, set up 12316 farmers' burden reporting telephone numbers, and used the "Sunshine Government Affairs Hotline" and "Qilu people's Voice" to investigate and deal with more than 500 cases of burden reduction.

Second, the main problems found by the inspection

The inspection found that in some places, the problem of arbitrary collection of fees and apportionment to farmers and village-level organizations still exists to varying degrees, and the burden of village-level organizations is increasing.

(1) the problem of arbitrary charges related to agriculture still exists. There has been a marked reduction in arbitrary fees and fines and various fund-raising assessments for farmers in various localities, but the problem of arbitrary charges related to agriculture still exists in some areas.

First, arbitrary charges for compulsory education in rural areas. According to the policy, for schools at the stage of compulsory education in rural areas, in addition to collecting homework fees, boarding fees for boarders and food fees from students who are willing to eat at school, they are not allowed to charge students for the unified purchase of teaching and guidance materials, school uniforms, learning aids, etc., nor any other service fees or surrogate fees. The inspection found that some rural primary and secondary schools in Shandong Province still charge students fees for teaching and auxiliary materials, school uniforms, etc., up to hundreds of yuan per student, and do not issue any bills.

Second, farmers charge fees indiscriminately with electricity. According to the policy, urban and rural electricity shall be used at the same price with the same network, any unit or individual is prohibited from charging other charges in electricity charges, and power supply enterprises are prohibited from charging other charges when they collect electricity charges. The inspection found that some local farmers in Heilongjiang Province not only pay 0.51 yuan per kilowatt-hour electricity bill, but also pay one more kilowatt-hour electricity charge for the "Liangliang Project" every month.

Third, random charges for health in rural areas. According to the policy, it is strictly forbidden to collect other fees for farmers who do not comply with the relevant laws and regulations to have children, in addition to collecting social support fees in accordance with the law. The inspection found that some places in Shandong Province collected a deposit of 500 yuan from women of childbearing age, while some county-level health supervision departments in Heilongjiang Province collected fines ranging from 500 yuan to 1000 yuan from village health centers.

Fourth, farmers collect fees indiscriminately for building houses. According to the policy, when farmers use collective land to build or rebuild their own housing, it is strictly forbidden to charge other fees except that the land and resources department can charge the cost of the land certificate and the construction department can collect the cost of the house ownership registration certificate. Village-level organizations shall not set up projects to collect fees from farmers without authorization, and it is strictly forbidden to restrict farmers and manage village affairs by illegal means such as deposits, liquidated damages, fines and so on. The inspection found that some villages in Shandong Province collected a deposit of 5000 yuan from farmers who built houses.