Chinese people will pay more for contraceptive devices and medicines starting this new year, while daycare and services related to marriage and elderly care will become cheaper. In an attempt to reverse declines in birth rates, the Chinese regime removed tax exemptions that had been in place since 1994 on contraceptives. Starting this Thursday (1st), these items will have a value added tax (VAT) of 13%, the standard rate for most Chinese consumer goods.
A reform in the tax system also exempted VAT from services related to marriage, care for the elderly and daycare centers. Beijing’s broader effort to encourage young Chinese to get married and have children also includes extending parental leave and providing financial stimulus payments.
China’s population recorded a fall for the third consecutive year in 2024, a trend that experts warn is likely to continue. Chinese birth rates have been falling for decades, a result of the one-child policy that ran from 1980 to 2015.
According to official data, in 2024 9.54 million babies were born in China, around half of the births recorded ten years earlier, when the regime began to relax the rules on how many children a family could have.
Among critics of the measure, the argument is that the changes are insufficient to encourage couples to have children. A study by the YuWa Population Research Institute in Beijing, from 2024, points out that China is one of the most expensive countries in the world to raise a child. In addition to school tuition costs, the challenge women face in reconciling motherhood and work is a challenge to be overcome in the quest to reverse the drop in the birth rate, says the research.
