Saturday 04th December, 06:32 AM JST
TOKYO —
The Democratic Party of Japan on Friday called for the introduction of a tax on carbon emissions to fight global warming in the ruling party’s set of proposals for the government, which will compile the state budget for the next fiscal year.
The government will draft the budget for fiscal 2011, starting April 1, later this month while deciding on a number of tax reforms to secure necessary funds for the budget.
The proposals by the DPJ’s policy council also included requests for giving more discretion to regional governments in using state subsidies as well as for increasing the amount of monthly child allowance—policies that could prove popular with voters.
The DPJ, whose president is Prime Minister Naoto Kan, will submit the proposals to his government as early as Monday. The council emphasized that the party, which won power in last year’s general election, should keep its promises to voters.
The environment tax, or a levy on emissions, would be in line with Japan’s international pledge made by former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25% from 1990 levels by 2020 on condition that all major emitters set similarly ambitious targets.
But Japanese industries and even some lawmakers have protested against the introduction of the tax, which they fear could decelerate the country’s economic activities and lead more companies to relocate their production bases abroad.
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