A bill cutting the consumption tax on food and drink to 1% and paying support money to low- and middle-income earners has passed the Lower House and goes to the Upper House for debate tomorrow, with the Kyoto Shimbun urging lawmakers there to reject a policy whose effect and funding are both unproven.
In an editorial, the Kyoto Shimbun said passing such a bill without scrutiny would fail the legislature's responsibility. The ruling coalition pushed it through the Lower House vote with its "force of numbers" against the opposition of every opposition party. The paper called the handling rough and a disregard of the Diet.
The government has left almost nothing about the content, which bears directly on people's lives, clear, the editorial said. In the Upper House, where the opposition holds a majority, a special committee has been set up on which ruling-party members are a minority. The paper said the opposition could vote the bill down if the government does not give concrete details of the system.
One hour of questions in 30 hours of debate
Over roughly 30 hours of Lower House deliberation, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attended committee sessions for one hour. She stressed that lowering the rate on food and drink to 1% would "ease the burden on low- and middle-income people who are suffering." The editorial said she gave no sincere answers to a series of questions.
A professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo questioned the effect at a hearing of expert witnesses. Because food prices are rising now, "the amount that comes off will disappear fairly quickly," he said, calling it "an extremely poor-value policy." The president of a Tokyo supermarket said shoppers' joy at a tax cut "won't last even a month." He worried about how people will feel when the rate returns to 8% two years later.
Handouts left vague
Alongside the cut, the government has also declined to be specific about a support scheme that would pay out the ¥600 billion equivalent to the 1% rate, making the tax "effectively zero." It has only offered, as a "reference," a plan to pay an average of ¥30,000 each to about 20 million people, roughly 30% of workers.
On the final day of Lower House debate, the prime minister said she intended to widen the scope of recipients. The bill does not state this, and the government says it will set it by cabinet order after the bill passes.
The replacement funding for the ¥10 trillion the measures need over two years remains unexplained. The government repeats only that it will "not rely on deficit-issued bonds" and will "make it clear in the year-end budget compilation." The editorial said this amounts to asking for a blank check.
Cutting the base of the social security system that the consumption tax supports, with no prospect of sustaining benefits, pushes people's sense of security further away, the paper said. It asked whether the insistence on starting the cut next spring comes from a wish to fight April's unified local elections from an advantage.
Four party veterans walked out
In the Lower House vote, four Liberal Democratic Party figures who have served as prime minister or cabinet minister, including Shigeru Ishiba, left the chamber. The party asked them to explain and gave them a formal reprimand yesterday, the editorial said, adding that it is the government that owes a proper explanation.
In the Upper House, the government appears to intend to use the content of the handouts as a "bargaining chip" to draw in some opposition parties. The editorial said both camps face a question beyond immediate stability of daily life: the future shape of a sustainable tax and social security system. They must set aside party advantage and show why the Diet exists.