|
TOKYO, Dec. 21-- Japan's cabinet on Friday approved a record-high 101.46 trillion yen (913 billion U.S. dollars) budget plan for fiscal 2019, with soaring social security costs and military spending weighing on the country's already-fragile fiscal health. According to the draft budget, the fiscal year starting from April 2019 will see a record-high 77.95 trillion yen (701 billion U.S. dollars) earmarked for policy spending in the general account of the Japanese government. Among the major outlays, spending on social security will rise to some 34.06 trillion yen (306 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for more than a third of the total budget, on the back of the increasingly aging society of Japan. Defense spending, another major outlay, will hit a record-high of 5.26 trillion yen (47.3 billion U.S. dollars), rising for the seventh straight year since Abe took office in 2017, a growing concern for Japan's neighboring countries. The budget plan also includes 2.03 trillion yen (18.3 billion U.S. dollars),which will go to the "extraordinary measures" intended to offset the impacts of the government's plan to raise the consumption tax from the current 8 percent to 10 percent from Oct. 1 next year. Debt serving expenses, including payment for interests, are to reach 23.51 trillion yen (211 billion U.S. dollars), according to the budget plan. The spending is expected to be mainly covered by taxes and other revenues collected by the government, with tax revenue predicted to leap to 62.50 trillion yen (562 billion U.S. dollars), also a record high, as the government envisions a real economic growth of 1.3 percent in fiscal 2019. | 
