The tax panel of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Wednesday finalized a package of securities tax revisions it drafted the previous day in a bid to revitalize the flagging stock market.
The package, formally approved by the LDP's Tax System Research Commission at a meeting the same day, will be submitted to the ongoing Diet session so the revisions can take effect as early as December, panel head Hideyuki Aizawa told reporters.
The package is centered on bringing forward by three months to January 2003 the planned abolition of the withholding tax option of the current two-tier capital gains tax on stock trading.
At a news conference the same day, Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said he wants to urge stock market investors to buy securities now, as the revitalizing measures have been finally set.