China's top tax official said Wednesday it was necessary to raise the base line of personal income tax to a certain extent because of increased urban workers' salary income and residents' expenditures.

The Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation have drafted a preliminary plan for the raise and would submit it to the State Council, or the central government, for deliberation, said Xie Xuren, director general of the administration at a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing parliament annual session.

The State Council then will submit it to the national legislature for further deliberation and, once the bill was approved, the related clauses of the personal income tax law will be amended, said Xie.

According to China's tax law, Chinese citizens are entitled to pay personal income tax for their salary and ten other kinds of incomes. In case of personal income tax, the part of their monthly income exceeding the 800-yuan (97 US dollar) mark has been taxed ever since the tax was introduced in 1980. Some localities have adjusted the norms for taxation but a unified national adjustment is still available yet.

If the government fails for long to raise the 800-yuan mark when the people earn much more, argue experts, the role of taxation as a lever to adjust the income gap will be negligible.