Minister of Agriculture Du Qinglin said Monday that the fee-to-tax reforms carried out on a trial basis in 20 provinces and cities have been successful, with farmers' economic burden reduced by over 30 percent.
Du said at a press conference that in 2002 the national average per capita amount of fees or taxes was 78.7 yuan, down 29.3 yuan from 1997, or an annual average drop of 6.1 percent.
He said that the reform has rationalized the income distribution relations between the state, communities and individuals.
Last year the average net income of Chinese farmers was 2,476 yuan, up 4.8 over the previous year, witnessing a recovering growth after years of swaying.
(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2003)
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