Chinese people pay a 13% sales tax on contraceptives from 1 January
I seriously doubt that that’s going to have a major impact.
Observers appear divided on the aim of the tax overhaul. The idea that a tax hike on condoms will impact birth rates is “overthinking it”, says demographer Yi Fuxian from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He believes Beijing is keen to collect taxes “wherever it can” as it battles a housing market slump and growing national debt.
Consumption taxes are regressive, but sometimes they can be more politically-viable if they can be presented as fighting social ills.
A sin tax (also known as a sumptuary tax, or vice tax) is an excise tax specifically levied on certain goods deemed harmful to society and individuals, such as alcohol, tobacco, drugs, soft drinks, sugar, fast foods, fat, meat, gambling, vaping, cannabis (wherever legal for recreational use) and pornography.[1]
In contrast to Pigouvian taxes, which are to pay for the damage to society caused by these goods, sin taxes increase the price in an effort to decrease the use of these goods. Increasing a sin tax is often more popular than increasing other taxes. However, these taxes have often been criticized for burdening the poor and disproportionately taxing the physically and mentally dependent.[2]
I seriously doubt that that’s going to have a major impact.
Consumption taxes are regressive, but sometimes they can be more politically-viable if they can be presented as fighting social ills.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_tax
It’s gonna escalate to bans pretty soon when they realize taxing it alone doesn’t work.