April 3, 2015
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2015 April 1 - 7 [POLITICS]
Gov’t hides names of corporations receiving tax breaks at request of business circles |
Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Koike Akira on April 1 at a Diet meeting based on the result of JCP research revealed that Toyota Motor Corporation in fiscal year 2013 received 120 billion yen in tax breaks for R&D spending and pointed out that the government neglects to make public the names associated with their preferential tax treatment.
A bill to disclose information regarding corporate tax breaks given to companies became a law in March 2010 when the Democratic Party of Japan was in power. The bill initially included a stipulation that the names of companies receiving a large amount of tax breaks should be published.
However, the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties strongly opposed the inclusion of this stipulation and succeeded in having it removed from the bill. A former state minister in the DPJ government said to Akahata that the business community was behind this move.
In June 2008, the Japan Business Federation at a meeting with the DPJ expressed its opposition to the release of the names of tax break recipient companies, saying that it will cause unnecessary public confusion.
The Abe government also refuses to make public the company names. Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Miyamoto Toru at a House of Representatives Financial Affairs Committee meeting in March requested that the government disclose the names. Finance Minister Aso Taro turned down the request by saying that it may cause disadvantages to the companies in question.
Citing the fact that corporations enjoying preferential tax measures make donations to the ruling LDP, Miyamoto stressed, “People cannot help but suspect that the ruling party wants to hide its cozy ties with corporations and that’s why it conceals their names.”
Past related article:
> Toyota enjoys preferential tax measures [March 8, 2015]
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