TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) - Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said the government aims to enact legislation to introduce a new consolidated corporate tax-payment system in the year to March 2003. The government will also introduce a surtax charge on profits of companies that decide to opt for the new consolidated tax, to compensate for expected lost fiscal revenue under the new system, he added. The new system aims to allow companies to offset profits at group firms with losses at other units and is expected to reduce overall fiscal income. "We want to revise the existing tax laws to include the consolidated corporate-tax payment system, to be implemented next fiscal year," Shiokawa told a parliamentary Lower House economic and fiscal policy committee. "At the same time we want to introduce a surtax on business profits at low rates" on companies that choose the new system, he added.