North Hamgyong Province is imposing non-tax burdens (quasi-taxes) on locals as provincial authorities push plans for the construction of residential homes in the second half of the year.
A source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Wednesday that with the province scrambling to fulfill the construction plan it sent this year to the Central Committee, it has designated the city of Kimchaek as the focal point of its efforts, lighting a fire under housing construction projects in the city for the second half of the year.
According to the source, North Hamgyong Province’s leadership believes that while it must also push residential construction in certain rural communities like Onsong County and Saebyol County, producing construction results in Kimchaek could show up very nicely in the province’s end-of-the-year review. Accordingly, it is focusing on construction in the city.
The source said the provincial party committee and provincial people’s committee are pushing construction in the “big city” of Kimchaek, and that it is worthwhile focusing investment on transforming housing in rural communities into “ideal socialist villages.”
In fact, North Hamgyong Province called on ensuring that the investment of all machinery, construction materials and construction personnel in the province go into turning Kimchaek into a “model unit” by this autumn. All this is aimed at elevating the city — named for North Korean founder Kim Il Sung’s aide and close revolutionary comrade Kim Chaek — into the province’s most important gateway.
The project requires machinery, supplies and a ton of manpower, but with problems such as machinery and supply shortages continuously cropping up, carrying out the plan will not be easy despite the province’s energetic attitude.
Facing a dilemma, North Hamgyong Province’s leadership ultimately decided to impose quasi-taxes on local households.
In fact, the provincial party committee and provincial people’s committee asked Kimchaek residents to cough up 5 kilograms of diesel or gasoline per household, saying it was natural for local residents to pay “since the construction in the city was for them” and that locals “have a duty to provide oil since they’re building homes in their city.”
The source said that the provinces’s party and people’s committees ordered farms to form propaganda and agitation teams, explaining that the construction sites in Kimchaek require not only builders, but propaganda personnel as well.
However, farm managers and farmers themselves were nonplussed by all this, complaining that they cannot properly farm when the state is harassing them at the busiest time of year.
The source said the farm managers have no choice but to comply because the instructions came from the provincial party committee.
“As a result, farm managers are threatening farmers, telling them to come up with the oil without fail, even if they have to empty their emergency rice supplies and borrow money,” he added.
