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Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Monday instructed the Democratic Party of Japan's Diet Policy Affairs chief, Seiji Maehara, to reword parts of the proposed bill on raising the consumption tax in order to reach a consensus.
Maehara last week chaired a three-day gathering of 100 DPJ lawmakers to discuss the proposed bill to raise the consumption tax. The government plans to raise the 5% consumption tax to 8% in April 2014 and to 10% in October 2015 to help cover ballooning social security costs.
During last week's gathering, opponents of the bill said a consumption tax will have a negative effect on the economy and that there is no guarantee that the consumption tax will not have to be raised further after 2016.
It is the latter point which has become a contentious issue within the party ranks.
Noda told reporters that he asked Maehara to reword the bill to say that a further increase in the consumption tax after 2016 will depend on the economic situation at the time, TV Asahi reported.
Noda hopes to present a reworded bill to a meeting of all DPJ members on Wednesday and then submit it the Diet before the end of the month.
© Japan Today
16 Comments
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plasticmonkey
yeah, that will reassure everybody
kurisupisu
Consensus for a tax hike?
As if anyone wants to taxed more.......
cactusJack
Raise it to 15% now while the economy is still "good". Save me the suspense.
Vast Right-Wing Conspirator
The endless quest for "concensus" is one of the factors that retards Japan's economic recovery, and societal progress in general. If the party in power has a majority, and they think they are doing the right thing for the country, they should just get on with it. The endless talking and rehashing and meetings don't do any good for anyone, and don't change any minds.
almostshat
Just say its a baseless rumour that the tax will rise again. And anyway, we should all share the pain.
Suginamiguy
That really covers all bases nicely doesn`t it.
sillygirl
a rose by any other name - means we get scr3wed no matter what it is called. i would be for a little higher taxes if those in power would cut their pay and bonuses like the rest of had to - no choice - and we could see our taxes being put to good use rather than squandered.
Virtuoso
Abolish the tax on food and rents, or be prepared to cart off more bodies of elderly and handicapped people who died from starvation.
cleo
....and without this cosmetic rewording, there is a chance that economic policy would be made without reference to the economic situation at the time?
Am I missing something here?
sasakama
I appreciated Noda's commitment toward raising the tax to secure the budget for increasing social security cost. Given the situation that Japan is heading for aging society, the government should lead this discussion. The previous government led by LDP hadn't reached to the serious argument on rising tax. In that sense, Noda's leadership should be appreciated even though there're lot of points to be discussed.
johninnaha
I've said it before and I'll say it again, consumption tax needs to be in the range of 80 or 90% to pay for all the wonderful work that Noda and his gang of civil "servants" perform.
After all, they only get bonuses twice a year!
Surely they deserve better than this!
nath
So why do you stay? Seriously. Why do people who can see where Japan is going, and the problems that will cause in the future, continue to live in Japan and moan and moan and moan? Japan is the last place where a whining foreigner will make anything different.
GW
Well what is this about the 50th "plan" for consumption tax hike in the last 10yrs, they always toss out a plan, then withdraw, rinse repeat the only thing that changes is the yrs of "implementation" because time just flies by, this is all pretty stupid.
I dont want the oldies to suffer in their old age BUT they were the ones that let the ldp pilfer & waste all their premiums for decades & now that its been wasted they want the young'uns to get hammered to pay for them again.
This all sucks of course, the govt wont cut its evil, wasteful, thieving spending habits, the $$ the oldies paid got wasted, and now this, no credibility anywhere
And this tax plan with get withdrawn & we will see a similar one any week now.
I think we shud call these a "FUTENMA" ie where something get talked back & forth for decades on end with nothing ever bloody happening, as in, ah, another Futenma ne!
Fadamor
It's probably because of the way they have the thing worded now. It's probably worded as an automatic increse as long as certain goals haven't been met. That's usually not a good idea in government where those in power regularly are voted out of power. The replacements spend too much time undoing what their predecesors did.
Fadamor
*increase