The government and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party plan to budget for 300 more banking inspectors in fiscal 2000, which begins next April. The expansion is planned in conformity with a shift, scheduled in April, of the inspection and supervision authorities of credit cooperatives from prefectural governments to the central government, government sources said Friday. Because credit cooperatives are small in scale and financially vulnerable, the government sees a need to fully inspect these institutions ahead of the April 2001 introduction of a limit on deposit insurance coverage of 10 million yen per depositor in the event of the collapse of a financial institution. Consequently, inspectors are expected to total some 1,000 nationwide, including 350 at the Financial Supervisory Agency. The FSA had requested an increase of 130, while the Finance Ministry had requested an additional 220 at its local financial bureaus. The government and the LDP plan to include appropriations for the expansion in next fiscal year's budget, a blueprint of which was unveiled Monday.