 JCP criticizes FY 2005 draft budget for increased tax burden on people The Finance Ministry on December 20 presented ministries and agencies with a draft national budget for fiscal 2005. In a published statement on the same day, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi criticized the draft budget as one that will further impoverish the public. He said: The draft FY 20005 budget is marked by a policy of a major tax increase by scaling down the fixed-rate tax breaks on income tax to half. However, workers' income in the five years between 1998 and 2003 has declined by 19 trillion yen, or nearly 4 trillion yen every year. Economic prospects are unstable, even in the opinion of the government and the Bank of Japan. To throw cold water on personal income and consumption by imposing a mass tax increase next year is the worst economic policy imaginable. Under the Koizumi Cabinet, people are already bearing enormous sums of tax increases and social services costs. If fixed-rate tax breaks on income and residential taxes are abolished or scaled down and residential tax exemption for elderly people is abolished in FY 2005 and FY 2006, salaried workers and elderly people will face immeasurable hardships. On the other hand, too lenient tax cuts for large corporations and high-income earners are to be kept intact. The Koizumi Cabinet's policy of collecting taxes from ordinary people who are easiest to tax is unacceptable. The finance ministry's draft budget calls on nursing care insured to pay for their use of nursing homes, reduces assistance for disabled people, increases state-run university tuitions, impairs extra mother-child benefits in the livelihood protection assistance, and cuts the budget for job creation. All these measures create serious hardships for people. A supplementary budget for FY 2004 has been compiled to deal with earthquake, flood and other disasters. In the light of the need for relief in the snowy environment, the budget is inappropriate. On the other hand, budgets for wasteful big public works projects are maintained, including the second stage work for Kansai International Airport, Isahaya Bay drainage, and Yanba Dam. Nearly 5 trillion yen is earmarked for military expenditure. What is more, the budget includes new aspects that represent the government policy change from the proclaimed "exclusively defensive defense" to that of maintaining armed forces that can fight wars abroad. Given budget allocations for deployment abroad of the Self-Defense Forces and for supporting the U.S. strategy envisaged in the missile defense system, the FY 2005 draft budget is a de facto arms-buildup budget. The JCP opposes the full-scale tax increase policy and is determined to make efforts to achieve a national budget which primarily cares for the people's living conditions, the national economy, and peace. (end) |