(Yicai Global) March 29 -- Chinese families with toddlers can start enjoying lowered income taxes due to the government's efforts to encourage more childbirths.

Parents can deduct CNY1,000 (USD157) from their taxable incomes every month per infant aged below three, starting from the beginning of this year, the State Council announced yesterday.

The move adds to six other existing special expense deductions involving education, medical treatment, mortgages, home leasing, and elderly care.

The quickly aging society is trying to change its course. Some 10.6 million babies were born in China last year, with 7.52 births per 1,000 people as the birth rate slowed from 2020, according to public data.

The latest tax deduction addition is an important measure for China to optimize its childbirth-related policies and to actively deal with the aging of the population, China Securities Journal reported, citing Cheng Qiang, chief macro analyst at Citic Securities.

Making childbirth costs to be borne by the whole society through fiscal and tax-related arrangements is a significant part of optimizing those policies, Cheng added.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi