http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=374852
Gov't, LDP plan on lower house re-vote on tax reform bill April 30
TOKYO, April 22 KYODO
Gov't, LDP planning lower house re-vote on tax reform billRuling Liberal
Democratic Party Secretary General Bummei Ibuki speaks to reporters at the...
The government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party plan to have the
House of Representatives hold an overriding re-vote April 30 on a tax reform
bill that would restore provisionally raised gasoline and other road-related
taxes, a senior LDP lawmaker said Tuesday.
The plan was confirmed in a meeting the same day between Prime Minister
Yasuo Fukuda, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura and LDP Secretary
General Bummei Ibuki at the premier's office, the lawmaker said.
The three also reaffirmed the decision made earlier by the government and
the ruling coalition of the LDP and the New Komeito party on a set of measures,
including freeing up road-related tax revenues for general expenditures from
fiscal 2009, the lawmaker said.
Machimura told a press conference after his meeting with Fukuda and Ibuki
that the government has asserted that the provisionally raised taxes, which
expired at the end of March, should have been maintained and that it will do
what is necessary to restore the provision.
While the top government spokesman said it is ''not appropriate'' for him
to say whether the re-vote in the lower house should be held at a time the
opposition-controlled House of Councillors is deliberating on the tax reform
bill, he confirmed that the government and ruling parties are ''completely in
unison'' when it comes to the idea that the provisional tax surcharges should
be in place.
The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan is calling for an amendment
of the tax reform bill, but talks on the matter have not started.
The ruling parties are expected to resort to a re-vote in the lower house
on April 30 to push the tax code bill through and reinstate the raised tax
rates.
The government and the ruling parties have said failure to pass the tax code
bill would be a blow to local governments, with annual shortfalls in tax
revenues projected at 1.7 trillion yen for state coffers and 900 billion yen
for local governments.
The road tax row between the ruling and opposition parties has resulted in
the government's failure to extend the decades-old surcharges beyond their
expiration on March 31.
The bill cleared the lower house, dominated by the ruling camp, at the end
of February.
The Constitution stipulates that if the upper house rejects a bill or takes no
action within 60 days of receiving it, the lower house can hold a second vote
and pass the bill with a two-thirds vote. The 60-day limit for the tax reform
bill falls on April 29.
The road-related tax surcharges, comprising state and local levies on
items such as gasoline and automobiles, were imposed in the 1970s on a
provisional basis to expedite road development projects across Japan and had
been maintained until March this year.
The expiration of the provisionally raised gasoline tax of about 25 yen
per liter has led gasoline prices to fall at gas stations across Japan.
==Kyodo
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