DPJ to redraft FY 2010 budget plan, worth record 92 tril. yen

TOKYO, Aug. 31 Kyodo -
The Democratic Party of Japan will draft the forthcoming state budget from
scratch once it forms a new government in September, DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama
said Monday.
''We will make a substantial change,'' Hatoyama told reporters at the party's
headquarters, referring to the drafting process for the budget for fiscal 2010.
On Monday, a day after the DPJ's landslide victory in a general election, the
Finance Ministry finished accepting budgetary requests for the year starting in
April 2010 from government ministries and agencies as scheduled.
Hatoyama said it was ''unwelcoming'' that all ministries and agencies had
submitted their requests to the Finance Minister by Monday as they always do
around this time of year, knowing that a new DPJ-led government would be
launched soon.
Based on the requests, the state general-account budget for fiscal 2010 is
estimated to hit an all-time high of about 92.13 trillion yen, up 3.58 trillion
yen from the initial fiscal 2009 budget, according to the ministry.
As to core policy-related expenditures, the amount is likely to be in line with
an upper limit of 52.67 trillion yen, endorsed earlier this year by the
administration led by the Liberal Democratic Party, the ministry said.
In Japan, the annual budget is normally drafted by the end of December to make
it ready for approval in the Diet by the beginning of each fiscal year.
But following the DPJ's resounding win in Sunday's House of Representatives
election, this year the deadline for requests, set by the LDP in July, will not
carry much significance.
The DPJ, which has never governed, has promised voters to put more authority
into the hands of lawmakers and seize the initiative in budgetary matters.
DPJ lawmakers have said they will redo the drafting process for the fiscal 2010
budget under the leadership of Hatoyama, who is set to become Japan's next
prime minister in September.
Over the years, LDP administrations, in contrast, have relied heavily on
Japan's powerful bureaucracy in putting together annual state budgets, which
the DPJ sees as one of the key factors behind the aggravation of fiscal
problems.
Some of the policies outlined under the latest requests, especially in the
areas of public works, social welfare and agriculture, clearly go against the
stance of the DPJ, which is placing a high priority on eradicating wasteful
spending.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, for example,
sought to secure a total of 7.63 trillion yen, up 20 percent from the amount in
the initial budget of the current fiscal year.
Of the total, the infrastructure ministry is hoping to have 6.95 trillion yen
for public works, up 21 percent.
Yasutake Tango, the top bureaucrat at the Finance Ministry, said the ministry
is prepared to be flexible over the requests.
''If the new government lays out its direction, we have to respond
appropriately,'' Tango, vice finance minister, said at a news conference,
adding the drafting process must be completed by the end of this year in order
not to exert a negative impact on the fragile economic situation.
On Monday, the Finance Ministry suddenly canceled a plan to allow media outlets
to take photos or film of its officials receiving the requests.
The cancellation indicated how apprehensive the ministry is about its relations
with the new government.
''We were afraid to give the wrong impression that the requests will be kept
unchanged,'' Tango said, adding there was no pressure from the DPJ on the
decision.
==Kyodo