More guidance over family planning fines

Supervision and transparency in collecting social maintenance fees will be strengthened, as an effort to better regulate the work, national family planning authorities said on Tuesday.

Yao Hongwen, spokesperson for the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said in a regular press conference that local authorities should disclose information about the maintenance fees' collection and management. Any violation of discipline and regulations should be punished.

Social maintenance fees are set for violating China's family planning policy. Local family planning authorities are responsible for collecting the fee, which is determined by the local residents' income levels. However, there is very little information about how the money is spent.

Yao said that fees should be turned over to the national treasury and then managed by local budget authorities. The money should be used in developing public and social services.

Yao noted that as of July, 24 provinces have disclosed the total amount of social maintenance fees they received in 2012.