An apparatus for controlling a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) is provided. In the apparatus, a physical layer includes a decoder for decoding a control message received over the packet data control channel, a demodulator for demodulating packet data received over the packet data channel, and a turbo decoder for decoding the demodulated packet data. A physical layer's HARQ controller determines whether to demodulate and decode the received packet data depending on a decoding result of the control message, outputs the decoded control message to the demodulator and the turbo decoder for demodulation and decoding of the received packet data, controls output of a response signal according to decoding result of the packet data, and delivers the turbo-decoded packet data to an upper layer.