The government plans to compile a third supplementary budget for fiscal 2020, with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga set to give instructions as early as early November, it has been learned.
The planned supplementary budget is expected to focus on additional economic measures, such as those aimed at stimulating consumption and creating jobs, to revive the sluggish economy amid the coronavirus pandemic.
According to several senior officials of the government and the ruling parties, the government plans to approve a third supplementary budget at a Cabinet meeting in December, before submitting it to next year's regular Diet session scheduled to be convened in January.
The government aims to implement seamless measures by compiling a third supplementary budget for fiscal 2020 and a regular budget for fiscal 2021 at the same time in an integrated approach, so that they will cover a period of 15 months from January. The total value for the supplementary budget will be decided by taking into consideration the immediate economic situation, according to the officials.
In the second supplementary budget, the government appropriated 10 trillion yen as a reserve exclusively for measures against the coronavirus outbreak, of which about 7.8 trillion yen remains at present. Suga, who aims to strike a balance between infection control and economic recovery, intends to use the remainder of the reserve to deal with the outbreak while at the same time using measures in the third supplementary budget to help get the economy moving by stimulating consumption, according to senior government officials.
Specifically, the third supplementary budget is expected to include investment in the digital sector to help create jobs, in line with the government's policy to promote the digitization of society.
Arrangements are also being made for the budget to include a measure to expand the subsidy scheme for infertility treatments, a policy that Suga has made a key for his administration.
In response to a series of serious natural disasters, the supplementary budget is also expected to include measures to make the nation's infrastructure more resilient to prevent disasters.
The government's Go To Travel tourism promotion campaign is set to be implemented through the end of January. For the third supplementary budget, however, the government is considering expanding the program, including extending it through fiscal 2021, in response to requests from the ruling parties.
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