Japan Eyes 30,000-Yen Benefits for Low-Income Households

Tokyo, Nov. 13 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government is considering providing 30,000 yen in benefits to each low-income household exempted from residential tax payments as part of a planned economic package, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The government plans to add 20,000 yen per child to the benefits, which are designed to support low-income households hit hard by soaring prices for food and other daily necessities.

The government aims to finalize the package this month. A fiscal 2024 supplementary budget, designed to finance the package, is likely to earmark over 13 trillion yen in spending, larger than 13,199.2 billion yen under the previous year's extra budget.

The economic package is also expected to include a plan to resume subsidies to cover electricity and city gas fees in January next year, aiming to provide the support until March.

In January and February, the government plans to provide 2.5 yen per kilowatt-hour of electricity and 10 yen per cubic meter of city gas, the same levels as in October this year.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]