The much anticipated income distribution plan should include a quantitative target, a senior official from the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, said.

"Reform of the income distribution system essentially is the adjustment of a series of ratios, so it is best to include a quantitative target in the reform design," Liu Hao, deputy director of employment and income distribution department of the commission, told journalists at a forum in Shenzhen.

These "ratio" include the share of households, enterprises and the government's income in the national income system and the percentage of wages in the national wealth, said Liu.

Statistics show that households have not benefited as much from the country's economic success as the corporate and State sectors. The percentage of wages in the national wealth declined and the gap between the income of urban and rural populations widened.

Between 1979 and 2011, China's GDP rose from 406.2 billion yuan ($65.25 billion) to 47.3 trillion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 9.9 percent. By contrast, the per capita annual disposable income for Chinese urban dwellers in 2011 was 21,810 yuan, representing an average annual growth rate of 7.4 percent over the same period.

These trends have given rise to a call for reform of the current system of income distribution.

Expectations were ignited when, last month, the State Council promised to draft a plan aimed at increasing the wealth of the middle classes and raising the incomes of those considered poor. But there has been no detail as yet of how this can be realized, despite wide interest.

"Now the income of urban residents is 3.13 times that of rural residents. Can we change it to 2.5 to 2.8 times by 2020? Now the income disparity between different industries is 4.48. Can we narrow it to 4?" asked Su Hainan, vice-director of the China Association for Labor Studies.

"If there is a quantitative goal, it will promote the implementation of the central government's design," said Su.

zhengyangpeng@chinadaily.com.cn