A central China province where almost 2,000 officials and celebrities were exposed this month for breaking the country's family planning laws is planning harsher fines on wealthy couples who have unauthorized children.

The Standing Committee of Hunan provincial People's Congress is discussing a draft amendment of local family planning regulations, which would impose a standard fine equal to two to six times the offenders' incomes for the previous year.

The amendment would take effect on the date when it was approved by the provincial People's Congress.

"The current penalties are too low for well-off people, and we are raising them to ensure social justice," an official with the Hunan family planning commission told Xinhua.

Offenders will be fined three to five times their annual income-- on top of the standard fine -- for each child after the first unauthorized birth. Those who had an illegitimate child would face an additional fine six to eight times the income of the previous year.

However, the official declined to reveal details on enforcing the fines.

The current regulations in Hunan impose a fine equal to double the offenders' incomes for the previous year and triple for every child after the first unauthorized birth.

At least 1,968 officials in Hunan were found breaching the nation's family planning law between 2000 and 2005, according to the provincial family planning commission.

Also exposed by the commission were 21 national and local lawmakers, 24 political advisors, 112 entrepreneurs and six senior intellectuals.

A national lawmaker identified by his surname Li was keeping four mistresses, with whom he had four children.

Provincial governor Zhou Qiang in April ordered local authorities to "expose the celebrities and high-income people who violate the family planning policy and have more than one child."

The move has also been adopted in east China's Zhejiang Province, and in central China's Henan Province, the nation's most populous region. Officials belonging to the Communist Party of China will be barred from promotion if they have more children than the law allows.

China's family planning policy was enacted in the late 1970s to ensure one child for each family and encourage late marriages and childbearing. The policy was upgraded to the Population and Family Planning Law, which came into effect in September 2002.

A survey conducted by the national family planning commission showed that the majority of celebrities and rich people have two children, with 10 percent of them having three.

In Hunan, officials estimate 30 million births have been prevented due to the policy. As the seventh most populous province in China, the Hunan provincial government has vowed to keep its population within 70.1 million by 2010.

As early as 2002, China's southern Guangdong Province pioneered measures to control the high birth rate in rich urban families. Offenders have to pay a fine equal to three to six times the local average annual income.

(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2007)