Family planning officials in several villages in central China are turning a blind eye to villagers breaking the nation's population control rules in order to collect fines later so they can meet the quotas for fines set by the authorities.

The Population and Family Planning Commission of Dengzhou City, Henan Province, sets quarterly quotas for fines extracted from those who fall foul of the country's family planning policy, the Henan Legal Daily reported yesterday.

Under Chinese law, families that have additional children are required to pay penalties. The fines are turned over to the state treasury.

The Dengzhou Population and Family Planning Commission is due to collect fines totaling 9 million yuan (US$1.4 million) from 28 villages and counties in the third quarter, the report said.

An unidentified village official told the newspaper setting quotas for fines amounted to forcing villagers to produce more babies. Family planning management is purely intended to make a profit, the official said.

In order to fill the quota, officials ignore villagers breaking the rules and fine them later. Many families, including those of government officials, have second or third children.

An unidentified official from the Dengzhou Population and Family Planning Commission, said assigning quotas was obviously wrong.