Government panel calls for a consumption tax increase to 8%-16% in 2015

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Government panel calls for a consumption tax increase to 8%-16% in 2015

The government panel on social services claims that a major tax hike is necessary to sustain “social services.”

The Council on Social Security on November 4 published a report calling on the government to swiftly work out steps to secure the revenue for social services with a consumption tax increase in mind. “Cost for social services will inevitably increase as the population is aging,” it says.

This is the direction Prime Minister Aso Taro referred to late last month when he stated his plan to raise the consumption tax in three years.

The panel estimated that the consumption tax rate should be raised by 3.3-11 points to 8.3-16 percent (about 10-36 trillion yen) in 2015 and by 6-13 points to 11-18 percent (about 21-50 trillion yen) in 2025 from the present five percent.

Conceding that the public has distrust in and anxieties about the country’s social services, the panel discussed ways to explain to the public about the need to ask the public to accept heavier burdens and to improve the cost-effectiveness in medical and nursing-care services.

It said nothing about the need to increase corporate contributions to social programs, as they continue fall behind the rate of corporate taxes in European countries such as Britain, Germany, and France.

It is unreasonable for the government to ask the public to pay more for securing the cost for social services.

To solve this problem, the Japanese Communist Party is calling for implementation of the principle of contributions according to ability to pay.

In conformity with Article 25 of the Constitution, that states, “All people shall have the right to maintain minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living,” the government must give priority to expanding the programs to defend this right.

- Akahata, November 5, 2008