The government is now paying for the cost of introducing a system to give points to households that have saved a certain amount of electricity and a mechanism to support a part of fertilizer prices for farmers as part of measures against rising prices. We have decided to spend more than 250 billion yen from the reserve fund for the year.
At a cabinet meeting on the 29th, the government decided to spend a total of 257.1 billion yen from this year's reserve fund as an additional measure against inflation.
Looking at the breakdown, in order to respond to soaring electricity prices and tight supply and demand of electricity at the same time, we will introduce a system to provide points equivalent to 2000 yen to households registered in the power saving program run by electric power companies. We will spend 178.3 billion yen to cover these efforts.
In addition, as fertilizer prices soar, we will spend 78.7 billion yen to create a new mechanism to make up for 70% of the increase.
It is aimed at farmers who are working to reduce the amount of chemical fertilizer used by 20% or more, and we aim to reduce the production cost of all agricultural products by 10% through these efforts.
With this decision, the reserve fund for corona and price measures this year will remain at 4,745.8 billion yen, and the government will continue to utilize the reserve fund to respond flexibly to rising prices.