Chinese senior law-makers have been pushing for an inheritance tax, while others dismiss it as "premature," according to a major Chinese newspaper report.

According to the People's Daily, He Keng, member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's legislature, said he hoped the tax would be on the congress's 2006 agenda.

Many law-makers are in favor of the legislation and it is possible that the tax law may be passed by the legislature in one or two years, He was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Experts said revenues from the proposed tax will be used to help the poor and scientific and cultural and other public undertakings.

The spokesman for China's national tax administration said he is unaware of a plan to formulate a draft law on legacy tax by the administration.

However, the newspaper also quoted Yang Chongchun, president of the Chinese Taxation Institute, said it is premature for China to impose an inheritance tax.

Huang Xiumei, an associate professor of the Nanjing University, said the law on the tax will not be passed for three to five years. Introducing a new tax is complicated and requires definition, evaluation and monitoring of assets and a national individual credit information system, which China has yet to be put in place.