‘Love Insurance’ Among Worrisome Chinese Taxes
Chinese officials have been ordered to curb unauthorized taxes that are taking a serious bite out of rural farmers’ meager incomes, including what a report Saturday called “ridiculous” levies for insurance on newlyweds’ love.
The Agriculture Ministry is alarmed by a steady rise in sometimes frivolous taxes beyond those charged to provincial farmers for local schools, family planning, militia, transportation, irrigation and local administration, the official China Daily reported.
The director of the ministry’s department of restructuring and management, Fan Xiaojiang, told the daily that peasants have been hit hard by a growing number of questionable taxes.
“Some of these charges are ridiculous,” the China Daily quoted Fan as saying.
“For example, in some rural areas marriage fees have reached a total of 700 or 800 yuan, which includes the cost of the wedding certificate, a physical examination of about 50 yuan, an insurance fee on the couple’s love and a tax on the killing of pigs to be used to entertain guests at wedding ceremonies.”
At the average Chinese peasant’s annual earnings of 522 yuan--about $110--the fees of 800 yuan represent about a year and a half’s salary.
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