The northeastern province of Jilin has unveiled a new policy to provide greater financial support to families that have second and third children, as part of recent changes to Chinese family planning policy to encourage greater fertility.
The Jilin province government recently issued the “Implementation Plan Concerning Optimisation of Reproductive Policy and Encouraging Long-term Balanced Population Growth” (关于优化生育政策促进人口长期均衡发展实施方案).
The Plan will “provide loan support for marriage and childbirth,” while also supporting banking institutions to provide discounted loans to married couples based on the number of children they have.
Under the Plan married couples who satisfy certain conditions will be able to access a “marriage and childbirth consumer loan” of up to 200,000 yuan, with variable interest rate discounts provided for first, second and third children.
Couples who have more children will enjoy various exemptions from value-added tax and enterprise income taxes. Those couples that start micro and small-enterprises who have second or third children will be exempt from value-added tax for monthly sale volumes under 150,000 yuan.
The Plan also increases the maternity leave period from 98 to 180 days for new mothers, while fathers will enjoy an increase in their leave days from 15 to 25.
