Gov't to accept fresh FY 2010 budget requests by Oct. 15+

TOKYO, Sept. 28 Kyodo - The government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will accept fresh requests from ministries and agencies for the fiscal 2010 budget up until Oct. 15 in its process of redrafting the state budget from scratch, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said Monday.

In the first meeting of a Cabinet committee on basic policies attended by key
ministers, participants agreed that the new government led by the Democratic
Party of Japan will closely examine existing spending plans for the next fiscal
year set by the previous Liberal Democratic Party administration and try to
slash wasteful expenditures, Hirano said.
Hatoyama told reporters after the meeting that Japanese people expect the new
government to eliminate wasteful spending so that more money can be allocated
for social support. ''We'll try to reduce spending on public works projects and
use money to protect people,'' the premier said.
He also stressed that the government will trim wasteful spending and carry out
measures to stimulate the economy at the same time.
The Cabinet will endorse basic budget compilation policies at a meeting
Tuesday, Hirano said. The government is aiming to redraft the budget for the
year starting next April by the year-end, he added.
Hatoyama, Hirano, Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who is also national
strategy minister, Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii and the leaders of the DPJ's
two coalition partners -- Shizuka Kamei of the People's New Party who serves as
financial services minister and Mizuho Fukushima of the Social Democratic Party
who is minister in charge of consumer affairs -- attended the meeting.
Hirano also said Fujii will head the government's tax panel. Internal Affairs
and Communications Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi said he and Kan will work as
acting heads of the panel.
The panel's first meeting will be held next week, after Fujii returns from a
weekend meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, of financial leaders from the Group of
Seven major industrialized nations, according to the Finance Ministry.
Kamei told reporters after the meeting he proposed a moratorium on loan
repayments for small companies so that ''politics can responsibly support'' the
management of small firms and secure employment. He said Hatoyama ''gave a
nod'' when he spoke about the idea.
Hatoyama told reporters, however, that the coalition government has not reached
any consensus on the moratorium issue, adding he thinks some measures are
necessary and the government will discuss the issue ''to find a good answer.''
Kamei's proposal has triggered declines in bank shares as it could undermine
the discipline of the borrowing companies and worsen lenders' balance sheets.
Earlier in the day, a committee on the state budget under the government's
National Strategy Office headed by Kan discussed whether to compile multiyear
budgets and introduce a system to evaluate policies several years after their
launch in its inaugural meeting.
Kan told the meeting that Japan ''needs to change its way of compiling national
budgets in order to solve social problems.''
He said the country should depart from its ''vicious practice'' in which
bureaucrats strive to secure as much spending as possible for their ministries
and agencies, and instead create a framework to encourage government officials
to slash expenses.
The committee is set to work out its basic policy in mid-October and reflect it
in laying out a draft budget for fiscal 2010.
==Kyodo