The ruling Democratic Party of Japan apparently did not receive any petitions from the public regarding child care allowances or gasoline taxes before it made its budget requests to the government Wednesday for fiscal 2010, party sources said Thursday.
DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa has said the party's budget requests, including setting an income cap on the allowances and maintaining gasoline tax rates, were crafted based on "requests from the people."
This raises suspicion that the party leadership formulated the requests on its own to secure additional funding for the budget. Such petitions, if genuine, could also give the party leeway to backtrack on its campaign promises to scrap the auto-related taxes and provide child care subsidies for all families.
A senior DPJ official said the two items were included in the budget requests on Ozawa's orders.
Separately, the government and ruling parties have begun making arrangements to set ¥20 million as the annual income limit for families to receive child allowances, sources said Thursday.
The party handed over 18 specific budgetary requests after examining about 2,800 it had received from the public since last month.
The party sources said there were no significant petitions dealing with the gasoline tax, but a transport organization requested subsidies if the higher taxes are maintained.
There were no petitions asking for an income ceiling for child care allowances, according to the sources.
Those subsidies were a pillar of the DPJ's platform during the election, as was its promise to scrap the additional gasoline taxes.
The party on Wednesday called on the Cabinet to maintain most of the additional taxes imposed on gasoline and automobiles.
During the Lower House election, the DPJ promised to provide monthly allowances of ¥13,000 in fiscal 2010 and ¥26,000 from fiscal 2011 for each child of junior high school age or younger, regardless of household income.