Disclosing the use of social subsistence fees is the first step to reforming the family planning system and policy, says an editorial in the Southern Metropolis Daily. Excerpt:

The Guangdong provincial family planning authority replied to a lawyer's request to disclose the uses of its social subsistence fee. The Guangdong authority's response was that according to the State family planning authority, the information cannot be disclosed without approval from the State.

The lawyers sent the same application to 31 provincial family planning authorities, 10 of which replied to him or provided him with data. If Guangdong's reply is correct, the provincial authorities that disclosed their data must have broken the rules.

However, according to the regulations on government information disclosure, information about the social subsistence fee falls under the category of government information that the government should disclose.

The fee, which should be handed to the provincial governments, has actually become the revenue source for many local family planning departments.

The public's concern on the fee is based on the people's demands to reform the family planning policy and the whole system in charge of carrying out the policy, which has been unchanged for more than three decades in many places.

The Guangdong family planning authority's attitude indicates some local family planning departments strongly resist the overdue reform because of their own interests.