Japanese Finance Minister Naoto Kan said the government would start a debate on overhauling the sales tax next month, indicating it could consider raising the 5 percent levy to help repair the nation’s finances.
“We will start that discussion properly in March at the government tax panel,” Kan said on a Fuji Television program yesterday.
The group will also discuss corporate, income and environment taxes, he said.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has promised not to raise the sales tax for four years even if the public debt approaches twice the size of GDP. Kan had said the government would debate tax increases only after it has exhausted measures to remove wasteful spending.
Standard & Poor’s last month cut the outlook for Japan’s AA sovereign credit rating, citing the government’s failure to come up with a plan to contain the deficit.
With an upper house election scheduled in July, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government may have difficulty introducing policies that could weigh on an economy that’s recovering from its worst postwar recession. The Hatoyama Cabinet’s support fell to 35.7 percent this month from 47.1 percent last month, a Jiji Press survey showed on Friday.
The government may also set up a venue for discussing tax issues with the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, Kan said.
He added that the government would “make efforts” to meet the DPJ’s election pledge to double child-care allowances for families in the year starting in April next year. Monthly handouts of ¥13,000 (US$145) have already been budgeted for the year starting this April.
Vice finance ministers Naoki Minezaki and Yoshihiko Noda have said since last month that it may be difficult to increase the benefits because of a lack of tax revenue.
“As a basic policy, we must make efforts to meet our promise,” Kan said.
“Policymakers in charge of the issue must be careful about their remarks,” he said, adding that he had given warnings to his deputies.
The government will tread a “narrow path” of providing needed stimulus for economic growth while containing the public debt and preventing bond yields from surging, Kan said.
Japan may need to provide some fiscal stimulus to support economic growth in the budget for the year starting April next year, the finance minister added.
The finance ministry forecasts public debt will swell to ¥973 trillion by March next year, exacerbating a debt load that’s already the world’s largest. Tax collections are set to fall below the amount of bonds sold this fiscal year for the first time in 63 years.
Speaking in a separate television program yesterday,Deputy Financial Services Minister Kouhei Otsuka said the government would judge whether to implement a new round of fiscal spending by assessing the economy’s results for the first quarter.
“Currently I don’t see such a need,” Otsuka said on TV Asahi.
He said the government may be able to judge by April how GDP would perform in the three months ending March 31.
Figures to be released today will probably show that economic growth accelerated in the fourth quarter of last year, led by a recovery in exports. GDP expanded at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the three months ending Dec. 31, the fastest pace in almost two years, according to the median forecast of 23 economists polled by Bloomberg News.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS