• Source:JND

China Condom Tax News: China will soon start collecting a value-added tax on contraceptive drugs and products for the first time in over three decades, a move aligned with Beijing's effort to get families to have more children after decades of limiting most to one child.

"Contraceptive drugs and products" will not be tax-exempt as of January 1, according to the country's newest value-added tax law. Products such as condoms will be subject to the usual 13 per cent value-added tax imposed on most products.

Social media outrage over condom tax

While state-run news outlets have not widely highlighted the change, it has been trending on Chinese social media, drawing ridicule among people who joked they would have to be fools not to know that raising a child is more expensive than using condoms, even if they are taxed.

More seriously, experts are raising concerns over potential increases in unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases due to higher costs for contraceptives. The ruling Communist Party's past "one-child" policy was enforced from about 1980 until 2015 with huge fines and other penalties and sometimes with forced abortions. In some cases, children born over the limit were deprived of an identification number, effectively making them non-citizens.

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China population growth

The government raised the birth limit to two children in 2015. As China's population began to peak and then fall, it was lifted to three children in 2021. Contraception has been actively encouraged and easily accessed, even for free.

"That's a really ruthless move," said Hu Lingling, mother of a five-year-old who said she is determined not to have another child. She said she would "lead the way in abstinence" as a rebel.

"It is also hilarious, especially compared to forced abortions during the family planning era," she said.

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In 2024, 9.5 million babies were born in China, about one-third fewer than the 14.7 million born in 2019, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That is despite a higher-than-usual birth rate driven by a traditional preference to give birth in the Year of the Dragon, according to Chinese astrology.

As deaths have outpaced births in China, India overtook it as the world's most populous country in 2023. The effect of the tax "on encouraging higher fertility will be very limited. For couples who do not want children or do not want additional children, a 13 per cent tax on contraceptives is unlikely to influence their reproductive decisions, especially when weighed against the far higher costs of raising a child," said Qian Cai, director of the Demographics Research Group at the University of Virginia.

(With inputs from PTI)


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