August 23, 2016
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2016 August 17 - 23 [POLITICS]
High-ranking officials in Abe government ‘pocket’ over 100 million yen in public subsidies |
The 38 government officials are 10 ministers, 15 state ministers, and 13 parliamentary vice-ministers in the reshuffled Abe Cabinet. All of them are parliamentarians of the Abe-led Liberal Democratic Party.
The LDP has been distributing part of the annual government subsidies the party receives to its Dietmembers’ branches. Akahata inspected the annual reports of 65 LDP branches led by high-ranking officials in the Abe government in regard to their use of the public subsidies.
In 2014, the LDP headquarters provided 11 LDP branches headed by PM Abe or his Cabinet members with a total of 196 million yen in government grants the party accepted. Of the money, the 11 branches carried over 69.82 million yen. PM Abe put in savings half as much unused grants again as he did in the previous year.
The Abe Cabinet’s 15 state ministers received 271 million yen in political party subsidies and accumulated a total of 32.35 million yen in unused subsidies. The 13 parliamentary vice-ministers received 226 million yen and amassed 48.70 million yen in their leftover subsidies.
The source of the government subsidy system is a mandatory tax of 250 yen per capita and the unused money should be returned to the national treasury in principle. However, the system allows political parties that accept government subsidies to carry over unused grants to the following year by transferring the money to their “party funds”. All political parties, except the Japanese Communist Party, have been receiving government subsidies without returning the unused portion to the national coffers.
Past related articles:
> Political parties except JCP accumulate 13 billion yen from public subsidies [September 26, 2015]
> LDP Dietmembers accumulate political party subsidies [January 14, 2015]
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