ID :
158762
Wed, 02/02/2011 - 17:30
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/158762
The shortlink copeid
No sales tax rise during current lower house term, hints Kan
TOKYO, Feb. 2 Kyodo -Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Wednesday he does not see a consumption tax hike taking place during the current term of the lower house that runs until 2013, as the government began in earnest tackling taxation and social security reforms.
Kan told the House of Representatives Budget Committee that the ''basic idea'' is not to raise the consumption tax until the current lower house members' terms end in August 2013.
Kan made the remark in response to Kenji Eda, secretary general of the opposition Your Party, who asked if the sales tax would be raised before August 2013.
Whether the government will raise the value-added tax, currently at 5 percent, in reforming the nation's tax and social security system is a matter of keen public interest.
The premier said that before increasing the tax, he will ''certainly seek a public judgment,'' indicating that the implementation of any hike would take place after the lower house is dissolved for a general election.
On the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's proposed pension reform, which is vital to revamping the overall tax and social security system reforms, Kan suggested a possible revision of it.
''We will put forward the DPJ plan as one way of thinking but it does not necessarily mean that this plan will automatically be the one to be presented in April,'' he said. ''We want to extensively review it.''
His remark was an indication that the opinions of the opposition parties on pension reform will also be considered.
Kan, who has said the government will present a plan on the social security reforms in April and a package of integrated reform plans for the taxation and social security systems in June, continued to make an appeal during the lower house session for cross-party discussions on the tax and social security system reforms.
But Keiichi Ishii, chairman of the New Komeito party's Policy Research Council, stressed that the government and ruling party must first show its blueprint before any such discussion takes place.
The premier also apologized for making a comment that was a ''little too harsh'' on the opposition camp's uncooperative stance so far after Ishii protested that the statement was provocative.
Kan had said that the opposition parties' refusal to engage in talks about such reforms would be tantamount to ''a rebellion against history.''
Opposition lawmakers, who caused the lower panel session to go into recess in protest of the vague answers of ministers, also took up the government's poor handling of the case of former DPJ leader and power broker Ichiro Ozawa who was indicted Monday over accounting irregularities involving his political funds body.
While Yosuke Takagi, another New Komeito lawmaker, pressed the premier to exercise his leadership in initiating sworn testimony at the Diet by Ozawa to explain his scandal, Kan stuck to his wait-and-see stance.
''My view that Mr. Ozawa should explain (his case) at the Diet remains unchanged, but ultimately the politician concerned must take responsibility in deciding for himself (what to do),'' said the premier on calls for Ozawa to appear before parliament.
Kan told the House of Representatives Budget Committee that the ''basic idea'' is not to raise the consumption tax until the current lower house members' terms end in August 2013.
Kan made the remark in response to Kenji Eda, secretary general of the opposition Your Party, who asked if the sales tax would be raised before August 2013.
Whether the government will raise the value-added tax, currently at 5 percent, in reforming the nation's tax and social security system is a matter of keen public interest.
The premier said that before increasing the tax, he will ''certainly seek a public judgment,'' indicating that the implementation of any hike would take place after the lower house is dissolved for a general election.
On the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's proposed pension reform, which is vital to revamping the overall tax and social security system reforms, Kan suggested a possible revision of it.
''We will put forward the DPJ plan as one way of thinking but it does not necessarily mean that this plan will automatically be the one to be presented in April,'' he said. ''We want to extensively review it.''
His remark was an indication that the opinions of the opposition parties on pension reform will also be considered.
Kan, who has said the government will present a plan on the social security reforms in April and a package of integrated reform plans for the taxation and social security systems in June, continued to make an appeal during the lower house session for cross-party discussions on the tax and social security system reforms.
But Keiichi Ishii, chairman of the New Komeito party's Policy Research Council, stressed that the government and ruling party must first show its blueprint before any such discussion takes place.
The premier also apologized for making a comment that was a ''little too harsh'' on the opposition camp's uncooperative stance so far after Ishii protested that the statement was provocative.
Kan had said that the opposition parties' refusal to engage in talks about such reforms would be tantamount to ''a rebellion against history.''
Opposition lawmakers, who caused the lower panel session to go into recess in protest of the vague answers of ministers, also took up the government's poor handling of the case of former DPJ leader and power broker Ichiro Ozawa who was indicted Monday over accounting irregularities involving his political funds body.
While Yosuke Takagi, another New Komeito lawmaker, pressed the premier to exercise his leadership in initiating sworn testimony at the Diet by Ozawa to explain his scandal, Kan stuck to his wait-and-see stance.
''My view that Mr. Ozawa should explain (his case) at the Diet remains unchanged, but ultimately the politician concerned must take responsibility in deciding for himself (what to do),'' said the premier on calls for Ozawa to appear before parliament.
