Japan Govt to Issue Deficit-Covering Bonds for FY '10

Tokyo, Oct. 6 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government has decided to
issue deficit-covering bonds to make up for an expected revenue shortfall
under a budget for fiscal 2010, it was learned Tuesday.
The government judged it necessary to issue the bonds because tax
income in the next fiscal year staring April is now estimated to fall below
the initially projected 46 trillion yen, informed sources said.
The tax revenue could even fail to reach 40 trillion yen, they
said, adding tax revenue for the current year is also expected to fall short
of the initial estimate.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, also president of the Democratic
Party of Japan, was ruling out issuance of deficit-covering bonds. But he
changed the stance in view of the sharp tax revenue drop caused by the
economic downturn since last autumn, they said.
The DPJ aims to carry out such policy measures it promised in its
election campaign as allowances for child-raising households, reduction of
expressway tolls to zero and abolition of gasoline and other provisional tax
surcharges.
Hatoyama was saying those measures, estimated to cost 7.1 trillion
yen for fiscal 2010 alone, can be financed by freezing part of spending
under the extraordinary budget for fiscal 2009.