Wen vows to deepen income reform
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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has pledged to further reform of income distribution to narrow the gap between rich and poor and secure social stability.
In an article published Thursday in Qiushi, or "Seeking Truth," the official magazine of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Wen said greater efforts were needed to build a rational income distribution structure.
"If the income gap continues to widen, it will pose a major threat to our economic development and social stability," Wen wrote. "We are poised and capable of gradually resolving this problem with a sound momentum of economic and social development and greater sustainability in various fields."
Complaints have been growing about how the income growth of many Chinese was lagging behind the rise in state fiscal revenue. Low incomes have been blamed for dragging down consumer spending.
"We will not only make the 'pie' of social wealth bigger by developing the economy, but also distribute it well on the basis of a rational income distribution system," Wen wrote.
He pledged the government would gradually increase the proportion of income individuals received from the distribution of national income, as well as the proportion of the primary distribution of income that went to wages and salaries.
The role of taxation policies in adjusting the distribution of income should be strengthened, and the tax burden for low and medium-income people should be alleviated.
He said the government would deepen the reform of income distribution system of monopoly industries, and set strict standards for the income of executives, especially senior ranks, in state-owned enterprises and financial institutions.
Wen also vowed to crack down on and ban illegal income, regulate off-the-books income, gradually form a transparent, fair and rational pattern of income distribution, and resolutely reverse the widening income gap.
He promised to guarantee a minimal living standard for low-income people in urban and rural areas and continue the government's poverty alleviation programs in the countryside.
