The government's Tax Commission on Tuesday proposed abolishing in fiscal 2003 certain tax exemptions granted to salaried employees with a working spouse.

In an interim report released the same day, the tax advisory panel also proposed abolishing certain exemptions granted to small business owners when reporting consumption-tax receipts, in a bid to increase transparency.

Under the current tax system, salaried workers can claim special tax exemptions of up to 380,000 yen from their tax base if their spouse earns no more than 1.03 million yen a year. This deduction is in addition to basic tax deductions for spouses.