Submitting 2nd extra budget to Diet this year difficult: Hatoyama

TOKYO, Oct. 7 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama indicated Wednesday it is unlikely his government
will be able to submit a second extra budget for fiscal 2009 to an
extraordinary Diet session set to be convened later this month, citing lack of
time for compilation.
''We're thinking it would be difficult to work out a supplementary budget in
the next extraordinary session,'' Hatoyama told reporters in the evening. ''We
have limited time left before the session, and we also have to discuss a main
budget for fiscal 2010.''
But the leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan also underscored the
importance of supporting the still fragile economy until the March 31 end of
the current fiscal year.
Concerning bills to allow for a moratorium on loan repayments for small firms,
which have been floated by financial services minister Shizuka Kamei, Hatoyama
said Kamei has told him he is currently working on the bills jointly with the
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to rescue cash-strapped companies.
Kamei, who visited the prime minister at his office earlier in the day, told
reporters afterward that Hatoyama told him the prime minister would leave in
his hands the compilation work of the bills.
Kamei, who is also chief of the People's New Party -- one of the DPJ's two
coalition partners -- is aiming to submit the bills during the upcoming
extraordinary session.
On the ongoing revision of the already formulated extra budget totaling 14.7
trillion yen for fiscal 2009, Hatoyama said he wants ministries and agencies to
make further efforts to cut more wasteful spending after the government
announced Tuesday it has managed to scrape together more than 2.5 trillion yen
from the extra budget, approved under the preceding administration.
Hatoyama said his basic idea is to ''lay out a budget for steps that would be
more beneficial to the economy,'' calling on the government agencies for more
cooperation to eliminate waste.
==Kyodo