Japan Leaning toward 1 Pct Consumption Tax Rate for Food

Tokyo, June 3 (Jiji Press)--Japan is leaning toward the idea of cutting the consumption tax rate for food to 1 pct next April, as such a reduction can be implemented more quickly than the original plan to lower the rate to zero pct.

On Wednesday, the multiparty National Council on Social Security held a meeting of working-level officials to discuss problems that must be resolved to carry out the proposed two-year tax cut.

Government officials explained that the reduction to 1 pct would take about a half year to make preparations, mainly updates to cash register systems, while the zero pct plan would require about one year.

The zero pct plan was an official promise Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made in the February election of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament.

But members of the government and the ruling camp led by Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party are increasingly supporting the plan to lower the rate to 1 pct early amid protracted inflation, sources said.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]