농어촌특별세의 운용실태와 정책과제

Abstract

농어촌특별세는 UR 협상이 타결되면서 농업·농촌의 경쟁력 제고를 목적으로 도입된 목적세 성격의 조세이다. 당초 농어촌특별세는 42조 원 투융자사업의 보완을 위한 재원으로 2004년까지 운용할 계획이었다. 하지만 한·칠레 FTA 협상이 타결되면서 향후 지속적으로 이루어질 FTA에 따른 투융자사업의 확대 필요성이 제기되어 2014년 6월 30일까지로 추가 연장되었다.

농어촌특별세의 운용에 대하여 일각에서는 세수·세출 간 연계성이 약하고, 수익자부담원칙이나 원인자부담 원칙이 제대로 지켜지지 않고 있어 목적세로서 제 역할을 다하지 못하고 있다는 이유로 단계적 폐지를 주장하고 있다. 한편 농업계를 중심으로 한·미 FTA의 발효와 한·중 FTA 협상이 진행되고 있는 상황이므로 추가 재원확보가 절실한 상황이며, 2014년 6월에 종료되는 농어촌특별세의 추가 연장은 불가피하다는 주장이 제기되고 있고, 국회에서도 추가연장을 위한 법안이 상정되어 있는 상황이다.

이 연구는 농어촌특별세가 2004년 7월 1일 도입된 이후 세입 측면에서 세입구조와 회계운용방식 실태 분석과 개선과제를 도출하며, 특히 세출 측면에서 농어촌특별세사업의 사업추진방식, 사업내역의 변화, 농어촌특별세의 지속적 운용의 타당성 여부 그리고 도입 목적 달성을 위한 농어촌특별세사업의 정책 개선방향을 제시하고자 수행되었다.

The Special Tax for Rural Development (STRD) is a special-purpose tax that was introduced to achieve three goals: reduce damages from the opening of the domestic agricultural market, strengthen the competitiveness of agriculture and fisheries, and improve the welfare of farmers and fishermen. After the conclusion of Uruguay Round negotiations, the government set up a first-phase 42 trillion-won plan, and in the process of developing the plan, the need to secure an additional fund to improve rural competitiveness was raised. As a result, STRD was introduced in July 1994. In addition, the coming into effect of the Korea-Chile FTA in 2003 made the government to realize that there is a need to secure an additional fund to prepare complementary measures. Accordingly, the plan was extended to June 2014. The STRD was introduced as a special-purpose tax and managed under a special account. No project was specified separately in the expenditure and it was managed as a fund needed to carry out overall rural investment and financing. Therefore, there are limitations to identifying the tax-based projects separately, and the performance of agricultural investment and financing can only be linked with the performance of the special tax. For this reason, it is pointed out that the STRD has limitations as a special-purpose tax. The problems that have been raised concerning the operation of STRD can be summarized as follows. First, the STRD which is classified into the category of local financing is not operated according to the initial plan. Second, there is a lack of comprehensive coordination in implementing STRD-based projects. Third, STRD projects are insufficiently linked to the original purpose, and due to investment overlap, the budget is not efficiently implemented. In the meantime, the entry into force of the Korea-US FTA and the pushing ahead of Korea-China FTA have raised the need to further extend the STRD for additional investment and financing in the agricultural sector. The analysis results of STRD projects revealed that procurement of tax revenue made it possible to effectively implement major agricultural investment and financing projects, such as farm income compensation, management support, production base expansion, and rural development. If the annual tax revenue of 5.534 trillion won (2012) is not secured, it would not be possible to carry out investment and financing like today's. Still, there needs to be improvement in the expenditure structure so that the STRD can play the role of a special-purpose tax and effectively use the fund. The STRD is currently assigned to the Special Account for Improvement of Agricultural and Fishing Villages, and out of the total fund of the special account, 57.7% is allocated for STRD projects while the rest 42.3% (2012) is transferred to other accounts such as the Special Account for Regional Development. In addition, there are limitations to achieving the original purpose of STRD since the expenditure is implemented according to the overall direction and purpose of the agricultural investment and financing plan, rather than according to a separate plan for STRD projects based on macro indicator forecasts for agriculture and rural areas. Not all of the STRD fund is used for its unique purpose and some of the fund is transferred to other accounts or implemented under the overall agricultural investment and financing plan. It is, therefore, necessary to examine and improve the way the fund is managed. Since the STRD is a special-purpose tax introduced to strengthen the competitiveness of rural economy, it is necessary to find ways to strengthen its original role. For this goal, it is necessary to find projects that other project accounts have failed to properly cover even though they are needed to achieve the goal. Also, expanding the project scope of STRD can be considered. Policy improvements can be made in the following ways to increase the effect of STRD projects. First, the need to continuously secure the fund is pointed out. At a time when the economic situation is deteriorating, such as the aging of rural population and decrease of farm income, it is undesirable to abolish or downsize the STRD on the account that there are limitations to its role as a theoretical purpose tax. Second, it is necessary to make efforts to link the STRD investment plan with the agriculture's future outlook so that it can be implemented based on circumstantial changes in rural areas. In order for the STRD to play the role as a special-purpose tax, it is necessary to double the effort to secure a linkage so that investment and financing can be carried out in line with the future outlook of agriculture and rural communities. Third, the inefficiencies that appear in the process of implementing the STRD project and agricultural investment and financing should be removed. In order to increase the efficiency and performance of STRD investment projects, it is necessary to adjust investment priorities, simplify the budget structure and support methods, and strengthen the performance evaluation system. Fourth, there is a need to strengthen the supervision of STRD projects. Since the STRD was introduced to strengthen rural competitiveness, the supervision role should be played by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, and project implementation and management should be systematically coordinated by the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.

Researchers: Joon-kee Park, Mi-bok Kim, Jong-yeol Yoon Research period: 2012. 8. - 2012. 12. E-mail address: jkpark@krei.re.kr