Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano indicated Wednesday the government may need to issue more than ¥44 trillion in new bonds in fiscal 2010 to fulfill its campaign pledges, echoing comments the previous day by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
"Amid this sharp drop in tax revenues, it is not good if it becomes financially difficult for us to carry out what we promised to the public in the manifesto when we lay out our next action plan," Hirano said.
"I assume that the prime minister basically thinks it is important to maintain fiscal discipline, but he also wonders if he should say no (to spending), even when achieving the (new bond issuance) target looks set to affect people's lives," Hirano said.
Hatoyama said Tuesday the government must not "be bound hand and foot by the ¥44 trillion target" at the expense of people's livelihoods, while also stressing the Cabinet remains committed to capping new debt issuance at ¥44 trillion in the fiscal year that starts next April 1.
Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said he expects tax revenue in the current fiscal year to total ¥36.9 trillion while new government bond issues will hit a record ¥53.5 trillion, far larger than the ¥44.1 trillion projected earlier.