Japan's 1st extra budget for post-quake rebuilding clears lower house

TOKYO, April 30 Kyodo -
Japan's first extra budget for fiscal 2011, which is aimed at rebuilding areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, cleared the powerful lower house of parliament Saturday, paving the way for its enactment next week.
The 4.02 trillion yen first supplementary budget is expected to be enacted on Monday with the backing of both the ruling and opposition parties, as a House of Representatives preliminary session endorsed it following its passage in the lower house Budget Committee on Saturday morning.
The budget will be used to finance initial reconstruction measures, such as cleaning up the massive piles of debris, restoring infrastructure and building temporary housing.
The government has projected that the extra budget will push up Japan's annual real gross domestic product by around 0.6 percentage point.
The budget, drawn up without relying on the issuance of fresh government bonds, is the first in a series of funding packages expected in the fiscal year through next March 31.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan has said the government wants to craft a ''sizable'' extra budget around June to speed up the rebuilding of the northeastern region of Tohoku.