KIM IL SUNG
ON ABOLISHING THE TAX
SYSTEM
A
Law Adopted by the Fifth Supreme People's
Assembly of the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea at Its Third Session
Democratic People's Republic of Korea at Its Third Session
March
21, 1974
It is the noble revolutionary duty of
communists and a fundamental principle which
the working-class party and state must
adhere to in the revolution and construction
to free the people from every kind of
exploitation and oppression for all time and
provide them with material well-being and a
cultured life.
The revolutionary struggle and
construction work are undertakings for the
people so that they can free themselves from
all fetters and enjoy an independent and
creative life as masters of nature and
society.
After liberation, our Party which is
guided solely by the great Juche idea, freed
our people from exploitation and oppression
for all time by leading the
anti-imperialist, anti-feudal democratic
revolution and socialist revolution to
victory.
Thanks to the correct policy and wise
leadership of our Party and the Government
of our Republic, the three revolutions,
ideological, technical and cultural, to free
the working people from all natural and
social fetters for ever, are developing in
depth in our country, and the historic task
of eliminating the vestiges of the former
society is being carried out successfully.
To abolish the tax system is a
revolution to free the working people from
these vestiges and a great change to meet
the centuries-old desire of the people.
The system of taxation which came into
being with the emergence of the state, has
been used in a class society for thousands
of years as a means of preserving the ruling
machine of the governing classes and
plundering the working people.
In the old days it was an instrument
for exploiting our people. In particular,
the colonial tax system imposed upon them by
the Japanese imperialists was the most
brutal and murderous system, unprecedented
in history. Our people cursed it and
resented it.
Our people were opposed to heavy
taxation for ages in the exploiter society.
They fought ceaselessly, particularly
against the predatory tax system under
Japanese imperialist colonial rule. But
their struggle did not succeed, in the final
analysis, because it was not linked with the
political struggle to seize power.
It was not until our revolution was
guided by the Juche idea that this fight
became a part of the revolutionary struggle
against imperialism and the exploiting
system and went on towards the radical
solution of the tax problem.
During the glorious anti-Japanese
revolutionary struggle the Korean communists
fought in support of the revolutionary and
people-oriented tax policy laid down in the
Ten-Point Programme of the Association for
the Restoration of the Fatherland, and they
set a brilliant example in implementing the
tax policy in the anti-Japanese guerrilla
base, the liberated area.
Our Party and people's government
abolished the predatory tax system of the
Japanese imperialists and established a
people-oriented, democratic tax system by
implementing the Juche-oriented tax policy
which was formulated in the days of the
anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle and
detailed in the Twenty-Point Platform after
liberation.
The new, people-oriented taxation
played a big role in laying the foundation
of the independent national economy by
rehabilitating and developing the destroyed
economy, and also in accelerating the
socialist reorganization of the relations of
production in urban and rural communities
and promoting the well-being of the people.
The Government of our Republic made
effective use of the state tax revenue as a
supplementary source of funds for economic
construction and cultural development, while
at the same time systematically lightening
the tax burden on the people as the
foundation of the independent national
economy was consolidated.
As the socialist reorganization of the
relations of production was completed and as
the foundation of socialist
industrialization was consolidated in our
country, the question of abolishing the tax
system became the order of the day.
As the conditions and possibilities
for the abolition of taxation matured, the
Government of our Republic first took
measures to abolish the agricultural tax in
kind during the period between 1964 and
1966.
This was a historic step to free our
farmers from the tax burden completely in
accordance with the Theses on the
Socialist Rural Question in Our Country.
It was also a radical step to strengthen the
worker-peasant alliance and consolidate the
economic foundations of cooperative farms
and increase the farmers' real income
quickly.
With the abolition of the agricultural
tax in kind, only income tax and local
self-government tax remained in our country,
and these taxes accounted for a negligible
portion of the state revenue.
Since the socialist system in our
country has been further consolidated and
developed, and since the strength of the
independent national economy has increased
incomparably, it is time to abolish all
taxes.
In view of the urgent need for
socio-economic progress, the Eighth Plenary
Meeting of the Fifth Central Committee of
the Workers' Party of Korea discussed the
matter and decided to abolish the tax
system, a vestige of the old society.
In this way the people's dream to live
in a tax-free society has come true, and
ours has become the first tax-free country
in the world.
In a socialist society it accords with
the law of social progress to abolish the
tax system, a legacy of the old society.
Under the socialist system, the
socialist state and cooperative economies
constitute the economic foundations of the
state, and the unity and cooperation of the
working people is basic to social relations.
The social and economic relations in a
socialist society are the basis on which to
reduce the tax burden on the people
systematically and, finally, abolish it.
The tax system in a socialist society
is no more than an auxiliary source of funds
to meet the needs of the state and society
for a certain period, and as such it is
utilized as a supplementary means to adjust
differences in the people's standards of
living.
The abolition of taxation in our
country is based on the advantages of our
socialist system and accords completely with
the law of development of this system.
The major advantage of our socialist
system which fully incorporates the great
idea of Juche in itself, lies in the fact
that the state is completely responsible for
the material and cultural lives of the
workers, farmers and other working people.
Under our socialist system all the
working people not only receive
distributions according to the quality and
quantity of work done but also enormous
benefits from the state: they are provided
with all basic living conditions ranging
from food, clothing, housing, the education
of their children, medical treatment and
working conditions to recreation facilities.
The state benefits given to the
working people are a bud of communist
distribution which is developing in our
country steadily. They ensure equal
improvement in the working people's living
standards and provide them with happy lives
free from care.
Under our socialist system where the
state can finance the revolution and
construction on the strength of the income
from the socialist economic sector and can
afford to spend a large sum of money to look
after the people in a responsible manner, it
has become unnecessary to collect taxes from
the people as an auxiliary means of meeting
the needs of the state and society for
funds.
Under our socialist system where the
exploiting classes were liquidated a long
time ago, and where all the working people
are equally well-off without any great
difference in their standards of living, it
is unnecessary to keep the tax system any
longer, the system which serves as a means
to adjust the income of the people on an
equitable basis.
Our socialist working people who armed
themselves with the great idea of Juche and
who have become masters of the revolution
and construction under our socialist system,
are taking part conscientiously in all state
affairs, regarding them as their personal
concern.
To our working people who are
acquitting themselves well in their solemn
duty to the socialist fatherland, as the
masters of the state and society, displaying
a high degree of revolutionary awareness and
voluntary enthusiasm, it has become
unnecessary to retain taxation, a legacy of
the old society, as their civil duty to the
state.
Our powerful socialist, independent,
national economy is a solid material
guarantee for abolishing the tax system.
Under the wise leadership of the
Party, our people have built a powerful
socialist, independent, national economy in
a short period of their history by carrying
out the policy of building an independent
national economy successfully under the
revolutionary banner of self-reliance.
Today our Juche-oriented industry has
become a comprehensive, independent and
modern industry which has been equipped with
up-to-date techniques, and depends on solid
raw-material production centres of its own.
The irrigation and electrification of our
agriculture have been completed, and our
rural economy has become an advanced
socialist agriculture which is run with the
help of machines and chemicals.
Our independent national economy is
standing on its own feet, developing
steadily and rapidly, unaffected by
worldwide economic fluctuations and crises,
and our socialist state finance which is
based on this economy is becoming more
solid.
The powerful, independent national
economy and solid financial basis in our
country enabled us to take important
measures to reduce prices of industrial
goods sharply and even to abolish taxes for
the well-being of the people, while carrying
on the enormous projects for the building of
socialism, continuing to make great efforts
for social and cultural measures and
strengthening national defence to make it
more impregnable.
The abolition of the tax system in our
country is the brilliant victory of the
great Juche idea as well as a demonstration
of the incomparable advantages of our
socialist system which is the embodiment of
the Juche idea and the great capability of
our socialist independent national economy.
Thanks to the immortal Juche idea and
its brilliant victory, our people are being
provided with a richer, independent and
creative life in the socialist land of
happiness, where there is no exploitation,
oppression or taxation.
The epochal, people-oriented measure
taken by our Party and the Government of our
Republic to abolish taxes for all time will
further encourage our working class and the
rest of the masses to the great struggle for
the enormous socialist construction, the
struggle to implement the magnificent
programme of the Six-Year Plan ahead of
schedule and to reach a higher eminence of
socialism, and will inspire them to heroic
feats.
The abolition of the tax system will
give greater hope and confidence to the
south Korean people who are fighting
resolutely for democratic freedom, for the
right to survive and for the country's
independent and peaceful reunification, in
spite of unprecedented fascist repression.
In accordance with the provisions of
Article 33, the Socialist Constitution of
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea,
the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK
decides:
1. The tax system, a vestige of the
old society, shall be abolished completely,
2. The Administration Council of the
DPRK shall take measures to implement this
law, and
3. The law shall be effective from
April 1, 1974.