The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito formally adopted Wednesday tax reform policies for fiscal 2016, including the exemption of all food items except those served at restaurants from the planned consumption tax hike in April 2017.
In addition to ways to ease the burden on low-income consumers when the consumption tax rate is raised by 2 percentage points to 10 percent, the ruling parties have also agreed to seek further reduction of the corporate tax rate to encourage firms to expand capital investment and wages.
Based on the coalition policies, the government is expected to compile a tax reform package and submit it to the Diet during a regular session to be convened early next year.