BEIJING - Beijing will usher in a residential permit system this year, a senior official said Thursday.

Lu Yan, director of the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, said the system is aimed at limiting the booming population expansion.

He did not elaborate on how the permit system would affect the population growth, however.

People who obtain the permits in the future will be entitled to many of the benefits only enjoyed with the Beijing "hukou", or permanent resident permits.

Beijing's permanent population has exceeded 20 million, about 2.6 times that of London and 2.5 times of New York. Owing to limited resources, people with Beijing "hukou" enjoy better educational opportunities, employment support, senior citizen benefit and social welfare.

Previously, migrant citizens could only apply for temporary residential permits, with almost no rights or benefits enjoyed by permanent residents.

Lu said the city will also step up efforts to push a "point system" to allow its migrants to claim permanent resident permits. Under the "point system", migrants can transform their household registration status to local residents after reaching a required amount of points.

China is pushing reforms in household registration across the country, with the government planning to help about 100 million people without urban ID records to settle in towns and cities by 2020.