Japan Enacts 13.9-T.-Yen Extra Budget

Tokyo, Dec. 17 (Jiji Press)--The Diet, Japan's parliament, on Tuesday enacted the government's 13.9-trillion-yen supplementary budget for fiscal 2024 to finance the first comprehensive economic policy package under Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's administration.

The House of Councillors, the Diet's upper chamber, approved the budget at a plenary meeting by a majority vote with support mainly from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Komeito, as well as Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party) and the Democratic Party for the People in the opposition side. The House of Representatives, the lower chamber, passed it Thursday.

Nippon Ishin voted for the budget after the LDP agreed to hold talks on its centerpiece policy of making education free. The DPFP backed it after its secretary-general reached an agreement with his counterparts at the LDP and Komeito to aim to raise the minimum taxable annual income from the current 1.03 million yen to 1.78 million yen.

The extra budget with general-account spending of 13,943.3 billion yen will fund measures to tackle inflation and rebuild areas on the Noto Peninsula in central Japan hit by a massive earthquake in January and torrential rains in September.

Under the budget, the government will accelerate livelihood support and disaster waste disposal in Noto Peninsula areas and provide gasoline subsidies and aid to curb electricity and gas bills during winter.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]