The Respected Comrade
"Comrade
The President
In 1948, 2 years after the historical agrarian reform, the farmers who had richest crops that year after the liberation of our republic were speeding up to provide agricultural tax from the early autumn with the firm determination to uphold our republic, the country of thankful people.
Then on Sep. 15th 1948, the president saw the document about the problems arising in payment of agricultural tax from the Ministry of Agriculture.
It said that they cannot pay the agricultural tax from the area of cold-weather damage so they tried to provide the state budget crops by compensating them from the area of bumper harvest.
We indeed needed enough spare crops to fortify our republic as firm as a rock and to do that, it was important to get agricultural tax without any deviation.
But our officials tried to get agricultural tax in non-political manner arbitrarily, thus it could result in lowering farmers' patriotic zeal and the trust in the republic.
The president instantly called the official as he grasped the seriousness from the document.
He grasped the actual conditions of cold-weather suffering zones in details and said that it was good to provide central budget in agricultural tax payment but actual payment amount could be failed to fulfil in some poor harvest zones as it was attributed to the amount of harvest.
He also said that they should get agricultural tax according to the rate decided by the state even if it failed to fulfil the budget and emphasized that even if they couldn't meet the budget plan of the state, they shouldn't be scrupulous about it but to get the tax according to the rate law.
The agricultural tax rate was 25% and it was regulated by the president just after the agrarian reform while having a talk with farmers at the edge of the field.
On April 7th 1946, the president saw many peasants ploughing the field and planting foxtail millet and he let his car stop and approached one peasant and sat at the edge of the field candidly.
So the farmers put down the farming equipment and rein and sat next to him and after some time, many peasants all sat around him.
They didn't recognize that this was the great leader who gave them the land of desire.
The president asked them how many members were there in their families and how much land they got, and what they wanted after the agrarian reform and so on.
The peasant happily told him that there were eight members in his family and he received 5000 phyong of land and they received it as free of charge thanks to the president and they could become rich so they had no more desire, and they had land and they could collect the seeds and they could also share ox and farming equipment.
The president heard his answer and encouraged them that the state would help them in the future.
After that, he asked the peasants how much tendency rent they paid to the landlords before the liberation and how much agricultural tax they wanted as they were the masters of land and what if 30 %
The president heard that they would become rich if they pay one third as agricultural tax, he again asked what if 25%.
Then one peasant said that they had paid 70% to the landlords before liberation and if it was 25%, it would too cheap.
The president wrote down something on his notebook and stood up. He said that the peasants became the masters of land and they should manage farm well enough and become good farmers, thus they should improve the life and offer good crops to the state.
Just after 2 months, on June 27, the decision that peasants should pay 25% of their harvest as agricultural tax was adopted.
In 1947, the president then reformulated that they should offer 27% of their harvest on rice paddy, 25% on dry field and 10% on burnt field.
But the officials just thought about the state budget crops and tried to collect agricultural tax arbitrarily.
The president told the vice minister that fixing the agricultural tax and collecting it correctly had important significance in encouraging peasants' zeal for increased production, thus they should not try to get neither more nor less agricultural tax from peasants but to collect as the state decided.
The official was ashamed of himself bitterly.
The president said that in Ministry of agriculture, they should organize the judge committee of agricultural tax with patriotic and responsible peasants from all over the country immediately and let them start their work.
And the president even taught him the method that they should strengthen the educational work and inspection so that they could have a correct judgment of field by field crop estimate.
Under the wise leadership of the president, who grasped the deviation that could arise in the payment of agricultural tax, in 1948, the payment of agricultural tax was successfully implemented in conformity with the requirement of the law and thus enhanced the patriotic zeal of farmers and that agricultural tax became the firm asset upholding our republic.
The president was indeed a great fatherly leader who possess the love and trust of the people as his natural disposition and set forth lines and policy by crystalizing and systemizing the requirements and will of our people and implemented them relying on our people.
