Personally I think it should always be allowed, but as with many, many things, it only works and is acceptable in moderation.
If you snot your kid with a frying pan every time he/she makes a mistake, all they'll learn is a fear of making mistakes, and will grow up emotionally scarred, which of course is not desirable.
However, if on the other hand you're never allowed smack your kids, what do you do if you have an obnoxious prat who won't do anything you say? Physical pain is a great ultimatum: a short spanking for a very, very bad deed or consistent brattishness is effective, not emotionally scarring, and above all prevents your child from turning out like and arrogant self-possessed obnoxious I-can-do-whatever-I-want-and-you-can't-stop-me kid; possibly the most annoying people on the planet.
I do agree though that regular use isn't good, like shouting at your kids "If you do that again I'll kill you!" What's the point? they know you won't, and you can't follow through on the threat, so they just ignore it.
Physical punishment is a last resort when every attempt at reasoning has failed, and coupled with consistency and sensible, regular rules, noone should ever really have to spank their child more than five, ten times in their lives.
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