Apr 21 (NHK) - The Japanese government has decided to expand its supplementary budget for the current fiscal year that began April 1 by more than 80 billion dollars. The move is to help fund cash handouts aimed at easing the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The supplementary budget now comes to more than 230 billion dollars. It will partly fund an emergency economic package worth about 1.1 trillion dollars.
The government will offer cash handouts of 100,000 yen, or about 900 dollars, to every person in the country. It made the decision after reviewing a plan to provide triple that amount to households whose incomes have fallen sharply due to the pandemic.
It is extremely rare for the Japanese government to make a major change to a draft budget that has already been approved by the Cabinet. The government now hopes to enact it as early as next week.
To cover the shortfall created by the revision, the government will issue additional bonds.
The total amount of government bonds to be issued in this fiscal year will be about 540 billion dollars.
The figure is larger than in fiscal 2009, following the global financial crisis, and means that 45.4 percent of Japan's annual revenue depends on funds raised from government bonds.
