Fujii Says Japan May Sell Bonds to Plug Revenue Gap
Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said the government may have to sell more bonds this fiscal year to make up for a shortfall in tax revenue.
Tax receipts may drop below 40 trillion yen ($442 billion) in the year ending March 31, compared with the 46 trillion yen forecast, Fujii said at a news conference in Tokyo today.
Fujii said it’s too early to determine the amount of debt to be sold this year. The government in April estimated it would issue 44 trillion yen in new bonds.
He said the government didn’t plan to use money frozen from the current year’s supplementary budget to plug the revenue shortfall. The finance minister said last week that the government will suspend 2.9 trillion yen from the extra budget and decide how to reallocate the funds when it compiles its economic outlook in December.
Fujii mentioned the likely drop in tax revenue in an interview with the Nikkei newspaper published earlier today. The newspaper said the decline in receipts meant the government would have to increase bond sales to a record 50 trillion yen.