The government will pare budget requests for fiscal 2010 as much as possible and try not to issue government bonds beyond the ¥44 trillion planned by the previous administration for this fiscal year, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Monday.
A second extra budget may be compiled for fiscal 2009, using the roughly ¥3 trillion scraped together through a review of the existing extra budget to fund it, he said.
"We'll make maximum efforts not to exceed ¥44 trillion," Hatoyama said at a meeting of the Lower House Budget Committee, pledging to try to trim the budget requests, which came to a record ¥95 trillion, by further reviewing proposed projects.
"There is a possibility that we might have to consider compiling the second extra budget," Hatoyama told the committee, citing such factors as the severe job market and expected steep revenue shortfalls.
"If that happens," he said, "I'll think about making use of the ¥3 trillion (from) the things we have found not needed right away and have since frozen (from implementation) through (our) efforts."