Society

Kishida Cabinet approves draft budget

TOKYO, Dec 23 (NHK) - Japan's government has approved a draft budget for fiscal 2024 totaling about 112 trillion yen, or about 789 billion dollars.

Prime Minister Kishida Fumio's Cabinet approved the bill on Friday evening. Kishida said the budget will tackle urgent issues and support the economy.

More than 30 percent of the total is earmarked for social security costs in light of Japan's ageing society and declining birthrate. The figure is up 6 billion dollars compared to the last fiscal budget.

The measures include expanding Japan's child allowance program next December to include all children up to 18 years, with no income cap.

Currently, an allowance is paid for children up to the end of junior high school.

Households with three or more children will also no longer face an income cap for a program that subsidizes university tuition and entrance fees.

The estimated total tax revenue in the budget remains about the same as in fiscal 2023. The government plans to issue sovereign bonds to cover a revenue shortfall of about 246 billion dollars.

The total value of outstanding Japanese government bonds by the end of the next fiscal year is now expected to exceed 7.7 trillion dollars.

The draft budget will be presented during next year's regular Diet session. Fiscal 2024 begins in April.

Source: ANNnewsCH

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