 Ruling parties put forward plan to 'save money' at the cost of people's well-being and education The government and ruling parties on November 26 agreed on a plan to reduce the national government's expenditure for the well-being of the people through a phased reduction and ultimate abolition of state subsidies to local governments by more than 2.8 trillion yen (about 20 billion dollars) over the next two fiscal years. Under the plan, the national government share of burden for the costs for nine-year compulsory education will be cut by 850 billion yen (about 8.4 billion dollars) in fiscal 2005 and 2006. The plan will also force prefectures to share part of the burden for funding the national health insurance system in order to reduce the state expenditure by about 700 billion yen (about 6.9 billion dollars). Local governments will be given the right to draw from part of the income tax, which at present is a national tax, to make up for the loss to be caused by cuts in state sbsidies. * * * In a published comment on the same day, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi said, "This makes it more difficult for local governments to fulfill their responsibility in efforts to improve residents' well-being." On the proposed cut in national government expenditure for compulsory education, Ichida said, "This imperils the constitutional right of citizens to receive education." "The JCP demands that true reform be carried out through the elimination of wasteful funding for unnecessary public works projects to be carried out by local governments and that the national government keep providing subsidies to local governments in order to guarantee the people rights to life and well-being. We will do our utmost to enable local governments to increase their tax revenues and demand that the national government continue to financially assist them," Ichida added. (end) |