China vows lawful collection of birth control fines

BEIJING - China's National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) on Tuesday urged grassroots authorities to legally collect birth control fines and vowed to punish any violation.

"We will improve coordination among different departments to regulate the collection and management of social compensation fees," said NHFPC spokesman Yao Hongwen at a news conference, referring to various acts of misconduct spotted by auditing officials in the management of family planning fees at the grassroots level.

Family planning fines, or "social compensation fees," are paid to local family planning departments by parents who violate China's family planning policy. Fines can amount to tens of thousands of yuan for each extra child.

In September, the National Audit Office released its auditing results on fines collected in 45 counties and cities in nine provincial-level regions from the beginning of 2009 to May 2012.

The office revealed various problems in the handling of fines, including inaccurate reports on the number of extra children parents had, failures to collect fees and local officials handing out higher fines than they should have.

"Family planning is one of the country's basic policies, and social compensation fees are a key means to enforce family planning as well as a necessary economically restrictive measure for illegal births," Yao said.

According to the spokesman, such fines should be submitted to the national treasury and then reallocated to local governments as funds to boost public services and social causes.