Only 10 days after the first supplementary budget was enacted, the government performed an almost acrobatic feat to finance a second extra budget for this fiscal year -- tapping the proceeds from government sales of shares in Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.
Amid the clamor by politicians and business leaders for more economic stimulus, the Finance Ministry managed to take on the daunting task of finding a revenue source other than bond issues to finance the 2.5 trillion yen spending package.
Theoretically, the plan allows Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to keep his promise to cap government bonds at 30 trillion yen for the year, a limit reached by the first extra budget.