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The long-awaited law on personal income tax will be revised with the tax threshold widely expected to be lifted from the decades-old 800 yuan (US$96.7) level.

The revision is on the agenda of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People’s Congress (NPC). The tax-free allowance for personal income tax, stipulated in 1980, has lagged behind economic development.

Personal income below 800 yuan a month is exempt from tax, but many people argue that the level is too low.

The income tax bill was enacted in 1993.

A person in charge of the Personal Income Tax Management Division of the State Bureau of Taxation said authorities had been studying the issue for a long time but could not tell when or how the law would be revised, the New Beijing Times reported.

The NPC Standing Committee regularly convenes to make decisions outside the annual full sessions of the NPC.

The tax, which is meant to balance incomes at different levels, has drawn nationwide criticism in recent years, particularly in better developed regions. Lawmakers have repeatedly called for the threshold to be lifted.

Jiang Deming, an NPC deputy, said he had learned from tax authorities that 65 percent of the country’s personal tax was paid by people earning common salaries. However, people with high incomes usually evaded a lot of tax in various ways including opening different bank accounts and preferring payment in cash, he said.

About 160,000 yuan in personal income tax was collected in 1980, while the figure was 99.6 billion yuan last year. Beijing lifted the threshold to 1,200 yuan in 2003 but the national level has remained unchanged. The number was 1,700 yuan in Shenzhen.

Xie Xuren, director of the State Administration of Taxation, said in December that the Central Government was considering increasing the tax-free allowance for personal income tax to help low-income families. He said low-income farmers and the urban jobless would continue to benefit from tax incentives.