Japan may impose 'green' tax in April
- Source: Global Times
- [01:40 November 30 2009]
- Comments
Japan may introduce a 20-yen-per-liter ($0.23) environmental tax on fuel as soon as April 2010, partly to make up for a steep fall in other tax revenues caused by the faltering economy, the Yomiuri newspaper said Sunday.
The Democratic Party promised in the run-up to its August election victory to abolish an unpopular "temporary" fuel tax of about 25 yen ($0.29) per liter in 2010, drawing criticism from environmentalists, who said the policy would hamper efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has pledged an ambitious cut of 25 percent in emissions by 2020, compared with 1990 levels.
Abolishing the fuel levy would also cost the cash-strapped government about 2.5 trillion yen ($28.93 billion) in revenues, but replacing it with a proposed new environmental tax of 20 yen per liter would make up most of the shortfall, the paper said.
Tax revenues are expected to fall to less than 40 trillion yen ($461 billion) in the financial year starting in April 2010, the Yomiuri said, but the government aims to keep new bond issuance to 44 trillion yen ($507 billion) or less.
Hatoyama's government must strike a balance between reining in the ballooning national debt and keeping the economy out of recession.
Efforts by a government panel to cut budget requests from an initial 95 trillion yen ($1.1 trillion) for the financial year starting in April have succeeded only in trimming roughly 1.7 trillion yen ($19.6 billion), far less than the 3 trillion ($34.6 billion) yen many had hoped for.
Reuters
