The government will soon implement more tax cuts after revising the Fiscal Structural Reform Law, which at present imposes strict financing restraints, Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto implied during a Diet session April 6.

For the first time, Hashimoto made it clear before the House of Councilors Budget Committee that the Conference on Fiscal Structural Reform, which drafted the fiscal austerity law, will convene soon after the fiscal 1998 budget clears the legislature and becomes law. Hashimoto had earlier only hinted that the conference will convene.

The 77.67 trillion yen national budget plan is expected to clear the Upper House on Wednesday at the earliest. "The government will take appropriate measures to deal with serious economic problems at home and abroad," Hashimoto said during the Budget Committee session. "We will do what is necessary."

The prime minister made the comment in response to a question from Keizo Takemi of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The conference consists of key figures of the government and the tripartite ruling alliance, and former prime ministers and finance ministers.

Several officials of the LDP, which Hashimoto heads, and its two smaller allies -- the Social Democratic Party and New Party Sakigake -- have maintained that the conference should convene to discuss amending the fiscal austerity law to allow greater flexibility in carrying out large-scale pump-priming measures.

The politicians have said Hashimoto should not be the only one blamed for revising the law, because the conference decided on the legislation and would also decide on any amendment. During the Upper House Budget Committee session, Hashimoto said he will carry his responsibility for the government's economic policy into the Upper House election scheduled for July.

Later in the day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanezo Muraoka said that soon after the budget is passed, the conference will meet to discuss economic policy and matters related to the fiscal austerity law.

Meanwhile, senior Upper House members of the LDP skipped an evening meeting of top party leaders to express their opposition toward discussing issues they feel should be handled only after the fiscal 1998 budget bill is passed.

Hiroyuki Kurata, chairman of the LDP Upper House Diet Affairs Committee, attended the meeting only to deliver the Upper House members' statement indicating why they boycotted the meeting, saying it was extremely regrettable that Lower House members have discussed things as though the 1998 annual budget had already cleared the legislature.

In reply, Hashimoto urged senior Lower House members to behave carefully. The Constitution stipulates that an annual budget bill is automatically enacted in 30 days after the Lower House passes it, even when the Upper House makes a decision contrary to that of the Lower House.