People in China will pay a 13% sales tax on contraceptives from January 1, while childcare services will be exempted as the world’s second-largest economy tries to boost birth rates.

Reforms to the tax system announced late last year eliminated many exemptions that had been in place since 1994, when China still had a decades-old tax system. one child rule.

It also exempts marriage-related services and aged care from value-added tax (VAT) – part of a wider effort that includes extending parental leave and handing out cash benefits.

Official data shows that China’s population has been declining for three consecutive years, with only 9.54 million babies born in 2024. That’s about half the number of births a decade ago, when China began to relax rules on the number of children it can have.

Still, taxes on contraceptives such as condoms, birth control pills and contraceptive devices have prompted concerns and ridicule about unintended pregnancy and HIV infection rates.有些人指出，要说服他们生孩子，光靠昂贵的避孕套是不够的。

When one retailer urged shoppers to stock up before prices rise, one social media user joked: “I’m going to buy a lifetime supply of condoms now.”

China is one of them most expensive country In a highly competitive academic environment, tuition fees and the challenges women face in work and childcare drive up costs, the study said, according to a 2024 report from Beijing’s Yuwa Population Research Institute.

The economic slowdown is partly due to Housing crisis hits savingsleaving families, especially young people, feeling uncertain or less confident about their futures.

“I have a child and I don’t want any more,” said Daniel Luo, 36, who lives in the eastern province of Henan.

He said he’s not worried about rising prices. “A box of condoms may cost an extra five yuan, or ten yuan, or at most twenty yuan. It only costs a few hundred yuan a year, which is completely affordable.”

观察人士对于税收改革的目标似乎存在分歧。 Fuxian Yi, a demographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the idea that raising condom taxes would affect birth rates is “overthinking.”

Last year, China’s VAT revenue was close to $1 trillion (£742 billion), accounting for nearly 40% of the country’s tax revenue.

Henrietta Levin of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the fertility data.

Another factor hampering efforts is that many policies and subsidies must be implemented by heavily indebted provincial governments, and it’s unclear whether they will be able to free up enough resources, she added.

Recent media reports claim that women in some provinces have received calls from local officials asking about their menstrual cycles and fertility plans. The local health bureau in Yunnan province said such data is needed to identify pregnant women.

But that hasn’t improved the administration’s image, Ms. Levine said. “(The Communist Party) can’t help but get involved in every decision it cares about. So in some ways it ends up being its own worst enemy.”

Observers and women themselves say China’s male-dominated leadership fails to understand the social changes underpinning these broader shifts, which are not unique to China.

Western countries and even countries in the region such as South Korea and Japan have been trying to increase birth rates as their populations age.

Research suggests part of the problem is the burden of childcare, which falls disproportionately on women. But there are other changes, too, such as a decline in marriage and even dating.

Mr Luo, from Henan, said China’s measures ignored the real problem: The way young people interact today increasingly avoids real human connections.

He points to the rise in sex toy sales in China, which he believes shows “people are just satisfying themselves” because “interacting with others has become a burden.”

It’s easier and more comfortable to be online because “the pressure is real,” he said.

“Young people today are under more social pressure than they were 20 years ago. Sure, they are materially better off, but the expectations on them are much higher. Everyone is exhausted.”