The budget for the new year was approved and approved at the House of Councilors plenary session on the 26th.
We have summarized the points of the new fiscal year's budget, which is the largest ever in the general account, amounting to more than 106 trillion yen, and the impact on our lives.
In the budget for the new fiscal year and the third fiscal year of Reiwa, the total amount of the general account reached a record high of 106,609.7 billion yen.
Looking at major expenditures by item, "social security expenses," which account for one-third of the total, increased by 150.7 billion yen from the initial budget for this fiscal year to a record high of 35,842.1 billion yen.
“Defense expenses” increased by 61 billion yen from this fiscal year to a record high of 5,323.5 billion yen.
"Public works expenses" increased by 2.6 billion yen from this year to 6,069.5 billion yen, and "Culture, education, science and technology related budget" increased by 5.7 billion yen from this year to 5,396.9 billion yen.
In addition,
▽ "local allocation tax" to be allocated to local governments increased by 139.6 billion yen from this year to 15,948.9 billion yen, and
▽ "government bond costs" to be used for redemption and interest payment of government bonds issued in the past was 407.2 billion. The yen has increased to a record high of 23,758.8 billion yen.
In addition, 5 trillion yen is included as a "reserve fund" that allows you to flexibly decide how to use it without obtaining the approval of the Diet to prevent the new coronavirus.
On the other hand, revenue is set at 57,448 billion yen, which is 6.6 trillion yen less than the initial budget for this fiscal year, in anticipation of deterioration of corporate performance due to the impact of the new corona.
In addition, the issuance of new government bonds,
▽ deficit bonds to compensate for the revenue shortfall is 37 trillion 256 billion yen,
▽ construction bonds is up to 43 trillion 597 billion yen together of 6 trillion 341 billion yen,
the beginning of the current fiscal year It has increased by 11,040.8 billion yen from the budget stage.
Comparing the initial budgets, it is the first time in 11 years that the amount of new government bonds issued has exceeded the previous year, and the ratio of government bonds to the total revenue is 40.9%, and the financial situation is becoming more serious.
New Coronavirus Countermeasures and Priority Measures
These are the main projects for the new coronavirus countermeasures included in the budget for the new fiscal year and the priority measures set by the Kan administration.
New Coronavirus Countermeasures
First, as a measure to prevent the spread of infection,
▽ In response to the tight system of health centers in each region, we will increase the number of public health nurses who specialize in infectious disease control from the current 1800 to 2,700, which is 1.5 times the current number. 2 billion yen as expenses for this,
▽ In order to strengthen the crisis management system of the health center, we will establish a "human resources bank" to register so-called "potential public health nurses" who are not working for marriage or childbirth, and support support between local governments. 500 million yen was recorded as expenses for the operation.
As for support measures to support the efforts and employment of companies, for example, we will support both budget and tax to support airlines with difficult management, and aim to reduce the burden on the scale of 120 billion yen.
Specifically,
▽ airport charges paid by airlines will be reduced by 90% for domestic flights at airports managed by the government such as Haneda Airport, and
▽ fuel tax for domestic flights will be reduced by half.
In addition, as the shortage of supplies that depended on imports became apparent, 6.5 billion yen was recorded as a subsidy for developing and manufacturing equipment such as respirators and dialysis machines in Japan.
On the other hand, 624 billion yen including the special account is included as expenses for extending the special measures to raise the upper limit of the employment adjustment subsidy.
1. Digital reform
The first priority measure of the Suga administration is digital reform.
▽ A total of 298.6 billion yen as a cost to standardize the national information system,
▽ One by one in elementary and junior high schools, with the deployment of terminals such as personal computers, 5th and 6th grades of elementary school, and 2 billion yen was included as a cost to distribute digital textbooks to junior high school students.
In addition, 100.1 billion yen as expenses to support the system development of the municipalities in charge of card issuance toward the realization of the goal of distributing My Number cards to almost all citizens by the end of Reiwa 4. Is recorded.
2. Realization of a carbon-free society
Next is a project aimed at realizing a "decarbonized society" that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero as a whole by 2050.
20.4 billion yen to support planning for regional emission reduction and introduction of renewable energy,
and 8.2 billion yen for offshore wind power generation, which is positioned as one of the main power sources in the future,
as a budget to support technological development.
Yen,
▽ 6.6 billion yen for the utilization of hydrogen
,
▽
2.3 billion yen for storage batteries, which hold the key to electrification of automobiles.
3. Infertility treatment
A budget for fertility treatment is also included.
In addition to testing for "recurrent miscarriage" that repeats miscarriage and stillbirth even if pregnant, it is used for treatment such as cryopreservation of eggs, sperms, and fertilized eggs in order to leave the possibility that younger cancer patients will have children in the future. 2.3 billion yen was recorded to reduce the cost burden.
Budget familiar to daily life
It is a budget that is familiar to people in their daily lives.
[Long-term care fee]
Regarding the long-term care fee that will be revised next month, 19.6 billion yen was included to make a positive revision of 0.7% as a whole after adding 0.05% as a cost for measures against the new coronavirus.
[
Drug
prices]
Regarding the drug prices set by the government, about 70% of the items will be reduced in the next fiscal year's revision, while taking into consideration the impact of the spread of the new corona infection, the reduction will be eased to some extent and 431.5 billion annually. It will be reduced by 100.1 billion yen on a yen and national expense basis.
[Waiting for children]
11.1 billion yen was recorded for the cost of implementing the "New Child-rearing Security Plan," which includes the operating costs of the nursery school to eliminate waiting-list children.
[Small class] To
realize the small class, increase the number of teachers in the second grade of elementary school in the new year as the first step to reduce the capacity of one class of public elementary school to 35 or less over 5 years from the new year. We have posted a national treasury contribution of 1,516.4 billion yen for compulsory education, such as adding 300 million yen to the cost.
Unusual 5 trillion yen for reserve funds
The budget for the new fiscal year that was established includes a reserve fund of 5 trillion yen that can be used as a countermeasure against the new coronavirus without the approval of the Diet.
This year, the first supplementary budget was 1.5 trillion yen, and the second supplementary budget was 10 trillion yen, for a total of 11.5 trillion yen.
Compared to this, the reserve fund for the new year will be about half the size.
However, compared to the 1 trillion yen reserve fund recorded in response to the Lehman shock and the 800 billion yen reserve fund recorded in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake, it can be seen that the scale is unusual.
Article 87 of the Constitution stipulates that the reserve fund can be set up based on the resolution of the Diet and paid at the responsibility of the Cabinet in order to cover the unpredictable budget shortage.
The new coronavirus has not stood the prospect of convergence, such as support for companies and individuals to spread prevention measures and business environment is getting worse, flexible financial support by utilizing the reserve fund is in a situation which is indispensable.
However, reserve funds, which are not fully deliberated in advance by the Diet, are an exceptional measure.
Looking at Japan's public finances, the amount of new government bond issuance exceeded 100 trillion yen for the first time this year, and the combined debt balance of the national and local governments is expected to reach more than 1166 trillion yen by the end of 2021. is.
For this reason, the government is required to give a detailed explanation of how the budget is used and its effectiveness.