DPJ tells opposition ready to revise some budget-related bills

TOKYO, Feb. 25 Kyodo -
The Democratic Party of Japan now stands ready to revise parts of the bills necessary to put the fiscal 2011 budget into effect as there are no signs of the DPJ winning enough support from opposition parties for the bills' passage through parliament, a senior DPJ lawmaker said Friday.
DPJ Diet affairs chief Jun Azumi said at a meeting with his opposition party counterparts that the ruling party will be open to amending bills that would enable the government to issue deficit-covering bonds to finance the budget and allow tax changes in the year starting in April.
Azumi also told them that a vote on the bills in the lower house, before sending them to the upper house, would not take place at the same time as a vote on the budget plan.
The DPJ decided to have a vote first on the budget so it can take effect even if the opposition-controlled upper house rejects it. It is set to clear the lower house on Monday. With the passage, the budget will be enacted automatically in time for the start of the new fiscal year on April 1.
The Constitution says that if the upper house fails to vote on a budget within 30 days after the lower house's approval, it will become the decision of the Diet.
But the related bills must be passed by the upper house or approved by a two-thirds majority when voted on again in the more powerful House of Representatives -- a level of support that the ruling coalition lacks.
The opposition side is against Azumi's unusual idea of delaying a vote on the related bills, saying that budgetary revenues and expenditures must be addressed altogether.
Azumi told reporters after the meeting that the timing of a vote on the bills is not dependent upon obtaining approval from the opposition camp, adding that the DPJ is ready to have deliberations on whether or how to revise the related bills in the lower house.
The remarks were made a day after the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party unveiled a counterproposal to the budget plan and at a time when Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government is at high risk of failing to secure parliamentary passage of the related bills before the start of fiscal 2011.
If the proposed bond issuance bill is voted down, the government will be unable to issue deficit-covering bonds to make up for a 38.20 trillion yen shortfall in the 92.41 trillion yen budget for the new fiscal year.
The bill to review taxation includes cutting the effective corporate tax rate by 5 percentage points, which has been welcomed by business leaders as a step to aid the recovery of Japan's flagging economy.
Under the latest proposal, the LDP is planning to downsize the fiscal 2011 budget to 89.35 trillion yen. It has urged that taxpayers' money be saved by stopping such key DPJ policies as monthly child allowances and toll-free expressways.
The LDP hopes the government will cut the issuance of deficit-covering bonds by 1.8 trillion yen to bring the total of new bond issuance to 42.49 trillion yen, compared with the government's 44.29 trillion yen, although it calls for more expenditures for public works projects.
Koichiro Gemba, national policy minister who also serves as the DPJ's policy chief, said at a news conference that some of the points mentioned in the counterproposal appear to be unrealistic and that the party would not unconditionally accept it.