’10 billion won compensation for planting trees?’… Citizen tax melts
- allforyouclick
- 0
- on May 22, 2023
“If you plant trees where you used to grow rice, you will get 10 billion won. But that 10 billion won will be subsidized by citizens’ taxes .”
It sounds crazy, but it could actually happen soon.
■ People who smell money and flock
There is a very old building in Buk-gu, Daegu.
Gyeongbuk Agricultural Research and Extension Services, a public institution affiliated with Gyeongsangbuk-do.
In 2014, it was decided to move to Gyeongbuk, and Gyeongbuk-do selected Sangju-si among three candidates: Sangju-si, Uiseong-gun, and Yecheon-gun.
And on June 29, 2017, the previous announcement was made.
“The final decision was made for the relocation of the Gyeongsangbuk-do Agricultural Research and Extension Services to Samdeok-ri, Sabeolguk-myeon, Sangju-si.”
KBS also reported this news through the 9 o’clock news. It was a slope for Sangju.
But soon after, a strange movement was detected. Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of trees began to be planted
in the relocated area .
Pine trees, maple trees, juniper trees…most of them were landscape trees.
As it turned out, it was an out-of-town landscaping contractor and about 30 villagers seeking compensation for trees .
This is because, under the Land Compensation Act, when the state acquires land for public works, it compensates for obstructions on the land, such as trees, in addition to the land.
The landscaping contractor and land owner even wrote a contract.
But the content is absurd.
① A landscaping contractor brings trees, plants them, and manages them.
② If the compensation money for the trees is received, the landscaping contractor gets 7 and the land owner gets 3.
③ If the compensation fee negotiation is delayed, the ratio is changed to 7.5 to 2.5 after 3 years of writing the contract.
A local resident also received this offer.
“One day, a phone call came and asked me to plant a tree. They said that they would compensate me for the land, and that if I planted a tree, I would be compensated for the cost of moving the tree. I said no. Isn’t that all tax ?”
Mr. A declined the offer.
Unlike Mr. A, hundreds of thousands of trees were planted on the land of the residents who accepted the proposal.
Out of the total area of 960,000 square meters of the relocation site, it has reached about 120,000 square meters .
If so, what is the tree reward they expect to receive?
10 billion won. Tree compensation is estimated at a whopping 10 billion won.
It’s all national tax. According to the contract, the landscaping contractor takes 7.5 billion won.
It would be better if the amount the state buys the trees is better, but it is all the cost of transplanting them.
I called the landscaping contractor and the villager who planted the tree.
“Oh, I don’t want to talk on the phone. Why am I on the phone with the broadcasting station? I don’t want to talk on the phone anymore.”
Both of them vehemently refused to be interviewed.
I had to check the dumping situation in another way.
■ Circumstances of speculation overflowing
First of all, we secured a drone video taken at the site before the previous announcement.
And KBS took a picture of the current look and compared it.
In 2017, it was a flat land with only rice fields, but now it is easy to find land densely planted with trees.
A comparison with aerial photography is more accurate.
This is a picture from 2017. The ocher-colored land is all paddy fields used for rice farming.
2019 since previous announcement. It is confirmed that trees were planted in rows all over the land.
These places amount to about 40 out of a total of 500 lots.
I got closer and looked.
After planting young trees, all the trees are small and thin.
It’s a pine tree, but the circumference is so thin that it’s about the same width as a cell phone.
And the tree spacing is mostly dense.
In some places, the distance between trees is less than 1 meter.
This is because a lot of trees must be planted in order to receive a large amount of relocation compensation, which is set per tree.
Normal tree growth was not considered at all.
They even planted trees on farm roads where people passed by.
Even on paper, the circumstances of speculation are easily discovered.
The year after the contract was written, 30 farmers simultaneously changed the crops from rice to landscaping trees in the agricultural business.
It is presumed to be an operation to deceive that trees were planted for ‘farming purposes’.
But 30 people at the same time? It is ‘blindfolded aung’.
Residents aimed for the following three types of compensation for the transfer of the Agricultural Research and Extension Services.
1. Compensation for land
2. Compensation for farming (compensation for not being able to farm for a while)
3. Compensation for trees
Should the money they want be compensated with taxes?
■ Tree compensation? Absurd decision Me and
Gyeongsangbuk-do watched the entire speculation process.
And, of course, trees were excluded from compensation.
As expected, the residents who planted the trees raised objections, and an agreement was not reached because they could not narrow the difference in position.
In the end, Gyeongsangbuk-do and residents requested an administrative judgment of acceptance to the Central Land Acquisition Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Central Land Acquisition Committee) under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
It is for the state to judge.
But… an absurd result came out. The jungtowi raised the people’s hand.
The reason is as follows.
First, let’s look at the situation by time period.
① June 29, 2017. Announcement of transfer of the Institute of Technology
② November 7, 2018. Public announcement of business plan
③ May 29, 2022. Project approval
The project was announced in 2017, and the project plan was publicized in 2018. And business license was granted in 2022.
In the common sense of the general public, of course, 2017 should be the standard date for compensation, but the CTO has set 2022 as the standard date for compensation.
The Land Compensation Act was the basis. The current law stipulates that individual development activities are restricted after business approval.
In other words, since development activities such as planting trees are recognized before business approval, compensation for trees should be paid.
In fact, from the announcement before 2017 to the date of business approval, all speculation activities were recognized.
It happened because the laws related to tree compensation were lax.
Appraisers also pointed this out.
Cho Jeong-heun/Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice Land and Housing Chairman (Appraiser)
“Since the standard date for compensation for obstructions is not clear, there is no way to catch speculation that took place before that.”
On the other hand, unlike obstacles, land has a clear compensation standard date. It is based on the public announcement date of the business plan.
A bigger problem is that as a result of this, speculation by landscaping contractors has been legalized.
Until now, if you planted trees secretly and aimed for compensation, now that the government committee has officially recognized the method, it means that openly planting trees can happen.
Currently, the Gyeongbuk Agricultural Research and Extension Services has filed an objection to the administrative judgment.
But what if the conclusion doesn’t change? Citizen taxpayers will have no choice but to enrich the speculators.
■ What should I do?
In fact, this has never happened before.
In 2008, right after the Gyeongbuk Provincial Government announced that it would move from Daegu to Andong, trees were planted on 40,000 square meters of the relocated area.
Two years ago, LH employees were caught planting willow trees in a public housing development area.
Why is speculation aimed at compensating trees for public works so frequent?
This is because compensation has been paid as requested by speculators .
Public project implementers also witnessed all the speculation sites, but under the Land Compensation Act, they cannot give compensation, and they are concerned about civil complaints from residents and obstruction of construction, so they are complying with the demand.
How many public projects have tree speculators made money in the meantime?
In particular, the method of making money by landscaping contractors is even ‘outrageous’.
The picture below is an easy way to explain how landscaping contractors make money.
The seedlings are planted in public utility A, and after receiving compensation, they are transplanted to other public works. After that, the mature trees are resold at high prices.
Landscaping contractors are making double or triple money with one seedling while being provided with land to grow trees from land owners who are involved in speculation.
The system needs improvement. Because our taxes can’t make speculators hungry.
■ Repeat tax waste if the law is not changed
First of all, as mentioned earlier, it is necessary to clarify the standard date for compensation for obstructions.
The public project plan should be announced through the media, or at least the date of public announcement of the project plan should be advanced먹튀검증.
KBS reported this to the National Assembly, and immediately met with a lawmaker who said he would change the law.
Shim Sang-jeong/Member of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee of the National Assembly
“If this is left unattended, it seems that tree speculation will prevail in public projects across the country. I think.”
Commissioner Shim Sang-jeong announced that he would block the payment of compensation through taxes.
It was also pointed out that there is a need to crack down on speculation and provide grounds for exclusion from compensation.Already at the time of the LH incident in 2021, the government announced <Real Estate Speculation Eradication Measures> and said that it would be excluded from compensation if speculation charges were confirmed, but the proper regulations have not been made so far.
The law must clearly define what the criteria for dumping are and what grounds the public utility implementer must confirm the suspicion of dumping. Jo Jeong-heon/Chairperson of the Land and Housing Committee of Gyeongshil-ryun (appraiser) “For the purpose of receiving compensation itself, it can really be said that it is for the purpose of speculation. If it is clearly confirmed by other evidence, then it is right to exclude it.” Changing the law is something that takes time, so it is important what kind of results the CPC will produce right away. A villager who successfully reached an agreem
Villager
“If this reward is given to the speculators, as a person in Korea, I really can’t sleep. It’s going out with individual taxes.”