Japan Press Weekly

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2012 March 28 - April 3 [POLITICS]

Consumption tax hike bill submitted

The Noda government on March 30 submitted a bill to the Diet to increase the consumption tax from 5% to 10%, the first bill calling for an increase since the submission of a bill by the Murayama Cabinet to raise the rate from 3% to 5% 18 years ago.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo immediately released a statement expressing his resolve to have the bill scrapped through Diet deliberations in cooperation with popular movements opposing the increase. The excerpts of his statement are as follows:

“A consumption tax of 10% will impose an extra 13.5 trillion yen burden on the public, causing particular damage to the average households and smaller businesses that account for 60% and 70%, respectively, of Japan’s economic spending.

This will plunge the overall Japanese economy into further crisis. A consumption tax hike will lead to a decline in revenues from other taxes, destabilizing the nation’s finances.

What is more, the government’s ‘unified reform’ entails a consumption tax increase along with a series of cutbacks in pension benefits, the healthcare insurance program, and other social welfare services. This will destroy both people’s livelihoods and the country’s economy.

The Japanese Communist Party calls for gradual improvements in social welfare programs while gradually securing financial resources by eradicating the wasteful use of tax revenues and sticking to the ability-to-pay tax principle.

At the same time, the JCP stresses the need to boost citizens’ incomes and promote a democratic reform of the economy in order to establish a domestic demand-led economy.

The JCP with this counterproposal will do its best to have the consumption tax hike bill scrapped.”