It's time to reduce family planning fines

EAST CHINA'S Shandong province is soliciting public opinions on a draft amendment to the family planning regulation, which will reduce the fines for those who give birth to more children than allowed. Zhu Hengshun, a National People's Congress staff, called for other provinces to follow suit, the Beijing News comments on Monday:

The fines on those giving birth to more children than legally allowed are imposed because the extra children consume resources so those with more children should pay the State for the additional consumption.

That principle originated in the years when China had to slow its population growth to save resources. Today new births are no longer considered a burden.

Thus it is time for the authorities to change tack. Some scholars have even proposed cancelling the fines because they are no longer necessary.

If the fines cannot be cancelled at the moment, at least make them lower so as to avoid discouraging people from giving birth. Current practice allows each provincial area to levy its own fines, which are always high. In Shandong province, for example, a couple has to pay three to six times the average annual income of their city.

Shandong is making progress by lowering the standard to three times, which is worth encouraging. We call for other areas to follow suit, too.