Leo Zhang/Shanghai Daily news

About half of the 20 common citizens invited to talk to members of the National People's Congress yesterday about a proposed change to individual income tax rates said the planned floor threshold to begin paying taxes is still too high.
The 20 citizens, who were picked from nearly 5,000 applicants based on income, education and place of residence, included office workers, public servants and migrant workers.
Yesterday's assembly was the first public legislative hearing held by the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.
The proposal calls for the minimum salary for paying tax to rise from 800 yuan a month (US$99), the threshold for more than a decade, to 1,500 yuan.
The change is widely seen as a government attempt to further close the income gap between the rich and the poor.
Ten of the citizens at yesterday's hearing said the threshold should be set above 1,500 yuan, while seven said the proposal was fine with them. Two said the minimum tax level should be set lower and one refused to comment.
Their opinions will be sent to the State Council, China's Cabinet, for review and the power to make a final decision rests with the central government.
"I expect the threshold to be raised to 2,000 yuan," said Wu Zhicai, the only migrant worker at the hearing. Wu earns 1,500 yuan a month in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.
"I have to pay about 1,000 yuan for basic needs such as food and housing, and even more for medical expenses," Wu said.
Others said the threshold must be unified across the country.
"China should use the same criteria nationwide to prevent competition for professionals among cities through propping up the tax threshold," said Jiang Hong, a senior tax manager at Philips (China) Investment Co and the only Shanghai resident to attend the hearing. "I think 1,600 yuan would be a good standard."
Local governments in some of the country's affluent areas have already set their own income-tax thresholds above the 800-yuan level, although that isn't strictly legal. Guangdong Province has the highest threshold at 1,600 yuan while Beijing has a baseline of 1,200 yuan.
By raising the minimum income for paying tax to 1,500 yuan, the number of salaried workers who have to pay tax would drop from 60 percent to 30 percent, Shi Yaobing, head of tax-rules department at the Ministry of Finance, told the hearing.
The proposal would also see the tax rates for higher-salaried workers drop, with those earning 1,600 yuan a month paying 91 percent less tax and those earning 10,000 yuan a month paying 10 percent less, according to Shi.
The proposal may cut China's income-tax revenue by 20 billion yuan a year.
In 1993, only 1 percent of Chinese workers earned more than 800 yuan a month, but after more than a decade of rapid development more than 50 percent of China's wage earners now take home more than 800 yuan every month, according to Chinese Finance Minister Jin Renqing.
Average urban incomes in China hit 9,400 yuan last year. Incomes were much higher in big cities like Shanghai, where the average was 16,683 yuan in 2004.
"Consumer prices have been surging in recent years with most of people's spending going to housing, education and medical services," said Bai Jingming, a researcher at a Ministry of Finance think tank. "Raising the threshold will hopefully help ease the burden on low and medium-income households."
China introduced its personal income tax system in 1980. Duties are levied on monthly wages exceeding the threshold. The amount is calibrated over a nine-grade range that ascends from 5 percent to 45 percent.
China's income tax revenues rose to 581.1 billion yuan last year, from 76.1 billion yuan in 1994, said Xie Xuren of the State Administration of Taxation.