Abe's policy of prioritizing road construction fails to pass self-imposed litmus test for reform

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Abe's policy of prioritizing road construction fails to pass self-imposed litmus test for reform
Akahata editorial (excerpts)

The Abe Cabinet claims that its policy of converting the currently earmarked revenue for road construction into general-purpose funds is the litmus test to prove that the cabinet is committed to "reform".

On December 8, however, the cabinet made a decision that the government will draw up a medium-term road construction plan in 2007 and that only the amount of the earmarked revenue which exceeds the road construction budget will be turned over to the general-purpose funds.

The supposed reform policy of the government has ended up as a mere perpetuation of the mechanism prioritizing road construction.

The annual road construction-earmarked national revenue amounts to 3.5 trillion yen, consisting of three trillion yen of the gasoline tax, two thirds of the automobile weight tax, and half of the liquefied petroleum gas tax. Local governments also receive a total of 2.2 trillion yen of the earmarked revenue.

The point at issue was whether or not the cabinet would convert the gasoline tax to the general-purpose funds, but the measure the government and ruling parties adopted did not even touch on this question.

Instead, the government set forth, first of all, the policy of drawing up a new plan to construct roads, including arterial roads and highways.

In addition to the earmarked revenue for road construction, the government policy of prioritizing road construction, as was materialized in successive medium- and long-term plans such as the Comprehensive National Development Plans, the Basic Plan for Public Investment, the Highway Improvement Programs, and Five-Year Plans, has caused wasteful spending of tax money.

The policy that the Abe Cabinet adopted is exactly what the Liberal Democratic Party and the lawmakers, acting in the interest of the construction industry, are aiming at. At a press conference on December 1, Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Fuyushiba Tetsuzo (Komei Party) argued that the government should make clear that the basic mechanism of the earmarked revenue for road construction will be maintained. LDP Policy Research Council Chair Nakagawa Shoichi said, "99 percent of LDP lawmakers are in opposition to the drastic reform."

The tax revenue earmarked for road construction was established half a century ago when less than five percent of national and prefectural roads were paved. As the rate has now reached 97 percent, nothing justifies continuing this system.

The earmarked revenue system in which an increase in the tax revenue lead to an increase in road construction has caused wasteful use of tax money.

In the name of an effective use of tax money, the government has been trying to cut the budget for community roads and concentrate resources in the large-scale projects serving business circles such as highways in the metropolis. This policy has exacerbated wasteful spending and environmental destruction.

Times demand that the earmarked revenue system to use tax money for road construction be converted to general-purpose funds. Needed roads can be constructed by using general-purpose funds. It is necessary to use the gasoline tax and other currently earmarked revenues for urgent programs defending the living standards of the general public, an area that Abe Cabinet is neglecting.
- Akahata, December 13, 2006