TOKYO, Japan: Japan’s parliament enacted a 3.11-trillion-yen (about RM77.8 billion) supplementary budget for fiscal 2026 on Friday to ease the impact of higher energy prices amid the ongoing conflict in West Asia, reported Xinhua.
The bill for extra spending was approved at an upper house plenary session by a majority vote with support from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior ally, the Japan Innovation Party, as well as some backing from opposition parties.
The House of Representatives, the lower house, passed the draft budget the previous day.
The extra budget, usually compiled much later in each fiscal year, came only two months after the initial fiscal 2026 budget was passed in April.
Of the general-account expenditures, 2.5 trillion yen will go to a new reserve fund to respond to soaring energy prices and other problems related to the West Asia situation, while 100 billion yen will be granted to municipalities to use at their discretion, such as subsidies for households using liquefied petroleum gas and businesses using extra-high voltage electricity.
Another 513.5 billion yen is allocated for electricity and gas subsidies from July to September to help households pay for rising energy costs this summer, when demand for air conditioning increases.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi had initially denied the need for an extra budget, fearing that additional issuance of debt-covering bonds to finance it could fuel concerns over a further deterioration in the country’s fiscal health and push interest rates higher, Kyodo News reported.
The prolonged West Asia conflict has kept crude oil prices elevated, adding inflationary pressures on resource-poor Japan, stirring calls in both ruling and opposition parties to craft an extra budget, the report said. – BERNAMA-XINHUA
