Finance, economic ministers eye tax hike talks by year-end

TOKYO, Sept. 25 Kyodo - Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa and Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano expressed their willingness Thursday to discuss by the year-end a roadmap for an eventual sales tax hike from the current 5 percent.

But Yosano predicted that talks on when and how the consumption tax should be raised will proceed on the basis of Prime Minister Taro Aso's policy of not
implementing a consumption tax hike in the next three years.
Nakagawa, who became finance minister and financial services minister in Aso's
just-inaugurated Cabinet, told a press conference early Thursday morning that
talks on the issue of a consumption tax hike will be ''unavoidable'' given
ballooning social security costs to support the rapidly aging population.
Yosano, who retained his Cabinet portfolio, also said he will strive to present
Japanese citizens with a ''clear road map'' on tax reforms, including a
consumption tax hike, during an interview with Kyodo News and other media
organizations.
Aso has said the slowing Japanese economy will take three years before it
starts to expand again at cruising speed, and that he will not raise the
consumption tax from the current 5 percent during that period.
''Now that Mr. Aso, as the Liberal Democratic Party president and prime
minister, has decided not to raise the tax for the next three years, the
party's study panel is likely to go ahead with discussions of his policies,''
Yosano said.
Yosano is known as a keen advocate of fiscal reconstruction and higher taxes.
Nakagawa, in contrast, calls for increased public spending and tax cuts to
shore up the economy.
==Kyodo