Lawyer campaigns for transparency in ‘social maintenance’ fees

A total of 17 provinces, regions and municipalities collected 16.5 billion yuan ($2.69 billion) in "social maintenance fees" in 2012, according to the information in letters sent from government departments to a Zhejiang-based lawyer as of Friday.

On July 11, Wu Youshui, a lawyer from the Hangzhou-based Bijian Law Firm, sent letters to the population and family planning commissions and finance departments of 31 provinces, regions and municipalities requesting information on the total amount of "social maintenance fees" collected last year and details of how the money was spent.

However, the letters he received did not contain the details of how the money was spent, but the total amount of money collected, The Beijing News reported.

According to a regulation issued by the State council in 2002, "social maintenance fees" refers to fees imposed on people who give birth to children in violation of the family planning policy, which is spent in a number of areas, including tasks related to the use of natural resources, protecting the environment and creating compensation for the government's investments in infrastructure or other endeavors.

Provinces, regions and municipalities have the right to set up the collection standards, and the amounts are determined by local residents' income levels, the regulation stated.

"The collection standards and who collect the social maintenance fees should be openly discussed by the public and decided by the National People's Congress. Thereafter, the revenue and expenditure of it must be open and transparent, as well as be subject to audits," Liang Jianzhang, a demography scholar, told The Beijing News.

East China's Jiangxi Province collected 3.38 billion yuan last year, ranking at the top among the 17 provinces and municipalities, while Southwest China's Sichuan Province ranked second, totaling 2.45 billion yuan.

However, Beijing only collected 401.88 million yuan and Shanghai collected just 36.45 million yuan.

Wu said the amount may not accurate as some fees were collected without receipts.

"For the next step, we will randomly choose one or two provinces and ask all their counties about how they spent the social maintenance fees. For other provinces, we will select two or three counties," Wu said.