Tokyo pays over 29 million yen for masks provided to welfare facilities due to misinterpretation of law. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government misinterpreted the law and did not pay consumption tax when purchasing masks that were provided free of charge to social welfare facilities as a countermeasure against the coronavirus.
The city purchased 114 million masks imported from overseas from five domestic businesses for approximately 2.3 billion yen four years ago. As a result, in addition to approximately 230 million yen in consumption tax, the Tokyo Metropolitan government paid an additional 29 million Yen to taxable businesses.