OSAKA -- The Osaka chapter of the Liberal Democratic Party -- which recently proposed a bank tax -- has been slow to support an Osaka Prefectural Government plan to double a tax charged on corporations that operate in the prefecture, it was learned Tuesday.

The proposed tax would be imposed for three years starting in fiscal 2001.

Kazumasa Moriyama, secretary general of LDP assembly members, said it is not a good idea to levy a new tax on companies, many of which are in the red.