社會撫養費(shèhuì fǔyǎngfeì): Social maintenance fee

On Sept 18, Beijing municipal authorities began a month-long process of soliciting public opinions on the revised regulation on collecting social maintenance fee.

Social maintenance fee is an administrative charge imposed on families that violate the family planning policy of having two children, in order to partly offset the extra fiscal expenditure on public services and environmental protection.

More than 20 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have decided to collect social maintenance fee from families violating the family planning regulation, which is in accordance with the recent change in the family planning policy.

The change in the family planning policy, allowing all couples to have two children, took effect on Jan 1. And media reports say 29 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have revised local family planning regulations accordingly.

Besides, 21 of them have announced the norms for collecting the social maintenance fee from families that have more than two children.

In many provinces and regions, the social maintenance fee is imposed by the local government according to local conditions. Although the norms for collecting the social maintenance fee vary from place to place, the fee is mostly based on per capita average dispensable income or the families' overall incomes.