Japan Press Weekly

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2011 November 2 - 8 [POLITICS]

PM in G20 promises 10% consumption tax hike in disregard of public opinion

Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko on November 3 at a Group of 20 summit meeting held in Cannes, France, announced his policy to increase the consumption tax rate to 10% from the present 5% by the mid-2010s.

He also said that in order to achieve the 10% tax hike, he will submit relevant laws to the ordinary session of the Diet before the fiscal year ends in March 2012.

On October 28, one week before the G20 meeting, in his policy speech at both houses’ plenary sessions, PM Noda did not refer to the consumption tax hike. He said that if the government still fails to achieve a sufficient amount of revenues despite its efforts to reduce expenditures and boost the economy, the government will seek a “path aiming at revenue reform.”

However, Noda has shown no sign of making any effort to stop the wasteful uses of tax money. The huge military budget, including the so-called “sympathy” budget for the stationing of the U.S. forces in Japan, and the system to provide government subsidies to political parties continue to be maintained. The Noda government intends to continue the preferential securities tax system and implement a new corporate tax reduction policy which benefits only a handful of large corporations.

Meanwhile, ordinary workers and the general public are suffering from the refusal to increase minimum wages and from the cuts in welfare services.

Since all low-income earners as well as disaster victims will have to pay the 10% consumption tax, the consumption tax hike will inevitably hinder people’s efforts to recover from the 3.11 disaster and further hurt the poor.

A secretary general of the anti-consumption tax liaison council said, “It is unacceptable that the prime minister promised at the G20 Summit to increase the consumption tax rate without holding Diet deliberations. He is totally ignoring public opinion and should retract his promise immediately.”