The new finance minister's statement Wednesday that discussion to raise the consumption tax will only begin next fall has sparked speculation that he will not carry out the last administration's long-term plans to cut the debt and that it's a ploy for his party to fare well in next summer's Upper House election.
Former Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki and former Financial Services Minister Kaoru Yosano both backed raising the consumption tax to cover the nation's mounting social welfare costs. But, now, Koji Omi, backing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's position, is saying that promoting economic growth and cutting expenditures is a better way to get rid of the nation's mountainous debt.
"The (Junichiro) Koizumi Cabinet carried out a thorough cut in expenditures in the central and local governments," Omi told The Japan Times. "As these (cuts) continue, we must look at how the 2006 budget account closes and the social welfare situation at that point, before we begin a concrete, full-scale discussion (of tax increases) in autumn of next year."