It has been 43 years since the tax system was totally abolished in the DPRK.
On March 21, 1974, the law “On abolishing the Tax System” was promulgated at the 3rd Session of the 5th Supreme People’s Assembly of the DPRK.
Since then, the DPRK became the first country free of tax in the world. During Japan’s colonial rule over Korea, the Korean nation had suffered from the deadly taxation system enforced by the Japanese imperialists. President Kim Il Sung set forth the abolition of all the sundry taxes imposed by the Japanese imperialists and establishment of the most popular tax system as one of “The Ten-Point Programme of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland” in the period of anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle.
After the country’s liberation, he put forward a detailed Juche-oriented taxation program in the Twenty-Point Platform and saw to it that the depredatory tax system of the Japanese imperialists was abolished and the most popular and democratic tax system established. Later, the President advanced a historic task for entirely abolishing the tax system and took a measure to eliminate the agricultural tax in kind between 1964 and 1966. And he saw to it that the provision on abrogating the income tax and rates of local autonomy was added to the Socialist Constitution of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Under his guidance, the 8th Plenary Meeting of the 5th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea held in February 1974 decided on the abolition of the tax system and the law on abolishing the tax system was adopted and promulgated in March that year.
At that time, peoples of the world highly praised the abolition of tax system in the DPRK as an event of great significance, the first of its kind in human history.
Provided by: KCNA