Violation of the Principle of Trust Protection Regarding Eligibility for Direct Payments
Violation of the Principle of Equality by Differentiating Treatment of Those Who Have Not Received Direct Payments in the Past 3 Years
Yoon Jae-gap, Member of the National Assembly of the Democratic Party of Korea (Haenam, Wando, Jindo)
[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyun] Representative Yoon Jae-gap (Democratic Party of Korea, Haenam·Wando·Jindo) pointed out that the public interest-type direct payment system, first implemented in May to stabilize farm income and promote the public interest of agriculture, has a high possibility of violating the Constitution.
Representative Yoon Jae-gap announced on the 17th that after requesting the National Assembly Legislative Research Office to review the constitutionality of the public interest-type direct payment system, he received a response stating that the current 'public interest-type direct payment system' undermines the trust of eligible recipients who expect to receive direct payments, and treats those who met the subsidy payment requirements under the previous law and those who received direct payments in the last three years differently, which could lead to controversy over violations of the constitutional principles of trust protection and equality.
Representative Yoon said, "The National Assembly Legislative Research Office's reply indicated that the amendment added a requirement for receiving the small-scale farmer direct payment, which includes having legitimately received the agricultural income preservation direct payment at least once between January 1, 2017, and December 31 of last year under the previous law, which may raise issues of violating the constitutional principles of trust protection and equality."
This means that people who were eligible to receive the agricultural income preservation direct payment or income support subsidies for disadvantaged areas under the previous law but did not receive direct payments between 2017 and 2019 are excluded from the direct payment recipients.
Those excluded by the added requirement were not aware that the public interest-type direct payment system would be implemented, and no transitional provisions or relief measures were prepared for them.
Representative Yoon Jae-gap said, "Farmers who have farmed for a long time but did not apply for direct payments and new farmers were excluded from the small-scale farmer direct payment recipients due to restrictions on farmland and direct payment receipt history," adding, "It is expected that hundreds of billions of won in direct payments will not be received by small and micro-scale farms due to the hastily implemented public interest-type direct payment system."
He pointed out that although he conveyed these concerns to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and requested countermeasures, the ministry responded with no measures and insincere answers, stating that they are aware of the side effects of limiting recipients due to direct payment receipt history but prioritizing the stabilization of the system as it is in its early stages.
He added, "The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs' insistence on no countermeasures under the pretext of system stabilization despite knowing the side effects is an administrative convenience-oriented mindset," and emphasized, "The lack of transitional provisions or relief measures for farmers excluded from the direct payment recipients violates the constitutional principles of trust protection and equality. We will promptly promote legislative amendments to rescue farmers excluded from receiving the public interest-type direct payments."
The public interest-type direct payment system, which the government is promoting from this year, integrates the rice direct payment and field direct payment systems, paying the same unit price regardless of crop type and price, and applies a higher unit price for smaller area segments.
In particular, the newly established 'small-scale farmer direct payment' provides an annual payment of 1.2 million KRW regardless of management scale if small-scale farms cultivating below a certain size meet all requirements such as farming period and rural residence period.
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