The government and the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito decided Thursday to provide 100,000 yen per person as an emergency economic measure to combat the new coronavirus.
The government aims to start paying the benefits without setting income limits by the end of May.
It plans to approve the revised fiscal 2020 supplementary budget bill, which includes the payouts, at a Cabinet meeting Monday and submit it to the Diet on April 27.
It is extremely unusual for the government to revise the budget once approved by Cabinet.
"The government plans to provide a uniform payment of 100,000 yen per person to everyone nationwide as people are restricted from going out and various other activities," Abe said at a meeting of the government's pandemic task force late Thursday.
The 100,000 yen handouts will be added to the revised budget bill, while the distribution of 300,000 yen to households whose incomes have fallen sharply will be withdrawn. With this move, the additional budget is expected to be about 8 trillion yen.
High-income earners can also receive the benefits. But the handout can be declined by not making the mandatory application for the benefit at a local government office.
In 2009, it took administrative authorities about three months to hand out one-time fixed payments to everyone nationwide as it took a long time to confirm the addresses and bank accounts of recipients. But according to a source close to the government, the 100,000 yen handouts will start by the end of May thanks to a system in which such information can be confirmed directly by applicants when they apply for the benefits.
The decision to uniformly make 100,000 yen payments followed a strong request by Komeito.
Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi requested that uniform payments without income limits be included in the supplementary budget bill during telephone talks with Abe Thursday morning, and the prime minister said he would consider it, according to sources.
Abe then told Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, LDP Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai, LDP policy chief Fumio Kishida and others of his plan to revise the supplementary budget bill during meetings with each of them at the Prime Minister's Office.
The government had approved the fiscal 2020 supplementary budget bill, including handouts of 300,000, yen at an extraordinary Cabinet meeting on April 7. The ruling coalition had planned to start Diet deliberations on the bill Monday and pass it by April 24.
However, mainly because only about 20% of households were eligible for the benefits, opposition parties and some coalition members had criticized the plan as "insufficient" or "difficult to understand."
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