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New plan to reduce income inequality

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A new income-distribution framework is set for approval to redress the growing gap between rich and poor, government officials said.

The framework comes at a time when the most affluent10 percent of the population make 23 times more than the poorest 10 percent.

In 1988 it was seven times.

The framework, eight years in the making, has been tabled for approval by the State Council and is likely to be introduced in the second half of this year.

"If low-income families cannot afford a decent standard of living, rich families will not enjoy any sense of security. That is a problem for the world, not just China," Yang Yiyong, director of the Social Development Research Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission said.

Yang has been closely involved in the framework's planning. Its overarching guideline, he said, is "for the government to give up a little tax revenue, for companies to give up a little profit and for rich people to give up a little interest."

Tax revenue grew from 7.3 trillion yuan in 2010 to nearly 9 trillion yuan in 2011, a 22.6 percent increase. It greatly outpaced urban income growth, 8.4 percent, and rural income growth, 11.4 percent.

Per capita income in China has just exceeded $4,000.

As part of income-distribution reform, government agencies, at both central and local levels, will be urged to pass legislation to cut taxes and regulate executive pay in high-profit monopoly industries and private companies, Yang said.