China taxes condoms, contraceptive drugs in bid to spur birth rate

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A antheral   pushes a stroller and a pistillate   holds a kid  arsenic  they locomotion  past   a billboard successful  Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China. File

A antheral pushes a stroller and a pistillate holds a kid arsenic they locomotion past a billboard successful Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China. File | Photo Credit: Reuters

China removed a three-decade-old taxation exemption connected ‍contraceptive drugs and devices from January 1 ​in caller steps to spur ‌a flagging commencement rate.

Condoms ​and contraceptive pills present incur value-added taxation of 13%, the modular complaint for astir user goods.

The determination comes arsenic Beijing struggles to boost commencement rates successful the world’s ​second-largest economy.

China’s colonisation fell ⁠for a 3rd consecutive twelvemonth successful 2024 and experts person cautioned the downturn volition ​continue.

China exempted childcare ⁠subsidies from idiosyncratic income taxation and rolled retired an yearly childcare subsidy past year, pursuing a bid ‌of “fertility-friendly” measures successful 2024, specified ‌as urging colleges and universities to supply “love education” to ‍portray marriage, love, fertility and household successful a affirmative light.

Top leaders again ‍pledged past period astatine the yearly Central Economic Work Conference to beforehand “positive matrimony and childbearing attitudes” to stabilise commencement rates.

China’s commencement rates person been falling for decades arsenic a effect of the one-child argumentation ⁠China implemented from 1980 to 2015, and accelerated urbanisation.

The precocious ​cost of childcare and acquisition arsenic ⁠well arsenic occupation uncertainty and a slowing system person besides discouraged galore young Chinese from getting joined and starting a ⁠family.

Published - January 02, 2026 08:49 americium IST

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