In order to seriously follow the guidance of the Fifth Session of the Sixteenth Central Committee of the Party, Central Economic Work Conference and Central Rural Work Conference, build the socialist new countryside, ensure all-round development of rural comprehensive reform and promote economic development and social stability of the country, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) recently issued a Notice to Carry Out the Special Inspection on Fertilizer Price and Agriculture-Related Fees and decided to make a nationwide special inspection on fertilizer price and agriculture-related charges from late February.

The Notice points out that in recent years, departments in charge of prices at all levels  have gained great achievement in truly maintaining farmers'  interests by carrying out the important thoughts of Three Represents, adopting scientific approach to development, constantly making the inspection on prices and agriculture-related fees, and investigating price hike and arbitrary charges that violate farmers' interests. However, since the pricing mechanism for agriculture is yet not smooth and the difficulty in county and township-level finances fails to be solved, there is still hidden trouble and uncertainty in fertilizer price fluctuation during spring cultivation period. Moreover, after agricultural tax is completely abolished, the pressure of arbitrary charges rebound in the countryside is huge and the inspection on fertilizer price and agriculture-related charges is still difficult. Departments in charge of price at all levels shall fully realize that it is a long-term and demanding task to reduce farmers' burdens, and shall make fresh progress in the special inspection on fertilizer price and agriculture-related charges to create a good and healthy environment for building socialist new countryside and advancing comprehensive rural reform.

Under uniform planning of the NDRC, the inspection shall be organized and arranged by provincial authorities in charge of price, and carried out by prefecture and county-level related departments. The inspection concerns fertilizer producers and dealers (including import dealers) and individual proprietor implementation of the fertilizer price policies since January 1, 2005; and all administrative and management charges related with farmers' production and living. In terms of fertilizer price, the inspection focuses on problems such as disobeying the Government's guided price, raising the ceiling producer price of fertilizer in disguised form, adjusting price in advance, refusing to take price intervention measures like price hike report and price adjustment record, and violating laws on prices like selling without price tag. The inspection on agriculture-related charges attaches importance to the adoption of The System of One-time Payment in compulsory education in primary and junior high schools and the implementation of Three Restrictions for non-compulsory education in senior high schools; funeral and interment, house building and charges of the Villager's Committee; charges for farmers' employment in cities; service charges of agricultural machinery operation, agricultural machinery maintenance, agricultural technology promotion, flood mitigation and animals epidemic prevention; charges of bird flu prevention and treatment, charges of agricultural production, domestic water and electricity supply; medical service charges of new cooperative medical units in the countryside and implementation of publication system of agriculture-related charges.

The Notice requires departments in charge of prices at all levels to establish a responsibility system and ensure the effort of the special inspection on fertilizer price and agriculture-related fees. We shall standardize work, solidify the achievements and prevent price rebound so as to reduce farmers' burden and increase their income rebound through the inspection. According to local situation, fertilizer price supervisors shall be dispatched into large and medium fertilizer companies to ensure price supervision and inspection. We shall make all-round inspections and rectifications on units and departments related to agriculture-related fees with combination of special inspection and standardization on these fees. It is a must to inspect the implementation of the system of keeping the public informed of agriculture-related fees, fully utilize the 12358 hotline for public price report and supervision and rural price supervision network, establish a rapid response system to investigate illegal fertilizer price and agriculture-related fees that reported by the public. By strengthening the publicity of price and fee policies, we shall enhance farmers' self-protection awareness. Meanwhile, some serious and typical vile cases shall be publicized through media in order to constrain arbitrary price hike and charges. During the special inspection, the NDRC will dispatch supervisors responsible for inspection on fertilizer price and agriculture-related charges to some provinces and cities to directly inspect key cases, and organize provincial-level departments in charge of price to directly inspect some nitrogenous fertilizer producers with production capacity above 150,000 tons and revisit units inspected last year.