Board-Ansicht
Mix-Ansicht- Japan machts vor: alles auf den St.Nimmerleinstag schieben - Baldur der Ketzer, 12.11.2002, 22:33
Japan machts vor: alles auf den St.Nimmerleinstag schieben
-->bis Godzilla kommt ;-)
1 trillion yen bailout seen in Shikoku bridge loans
The Asahi Shimbun
Government advisers back lower tolls, interest-siphoning to ease project's huge debt over 5 years.
Taxpayers got a 1 trillion yen-plus bill over five years Tuesday, courtesy of a government panel's recommendation to help the deeply indebted Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority meet its loan payments.
The government advisory committee promoting privatization of four highway-related public corporations agreed to the bailout.
The panel's decision followed an appeal by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who has championed privatization or elimination of money-losing government corporations in the course of structural reform. He urged the panel to find a sure way to see the authority pay off its 3.8 trillion yen debt.
The advisers determined that an infusion of 1.2 trillion to 1.5 trillion yen would make it possible for the bridge authority and 10 local governments at either end of the bridge-highway route to absorb repayment of the remaining 2.5 trillion yen debt over the next 50 years, as agreed upon by the Cabinet late in 2001.
The debt-relief program would pump in money over five years, starting April 1, drawing upon tax levies earmarked for road construction.
The infusion would take the place of the 180 billion yen worth of interest-free loans that the central government now provides to the bridge authority annually.
The government will begin discussing how to incorporate the plan into the next fiscal year's budget.
With the money would come a 15-year extension of the existing program to help 10 localities work off their share of the loan load. That program now pays 26.7 billion yen a year. Central and local governments are currently expected to pump 960 billion yen into the bridge-payment budget by fiscal 2012.
The advisory panel also supported cutting the currently high tolls in half on the three bridges that link Honshu and Shikoku, supported by revenues from the Japan Highway Public Corp.
Tolls on the bridge are now held to 20 percent below the regular price until March 31. Tolls range from 4,200 to 6,050 yen for standard vehicles.
But a generous toll reduction could demand yet more financial assistance. The panel's bailout plan is based on current tolls, assuming the municipalities will extend their bailout program for 10 more years.
Questions have been raised on using highway tolls to help the bridge authority, since the governing body, the Japan Highway Public Corp., is also deep in debt. Protests have been filed by the other municipalities involving ways to use the government money set aside for road construction throughout the nation.
The decision to inject funds came in a stormy meeting Tuesday. Naoki Inose, a staunch advocate of privatization, was flat against using taxpayers' money, saying revenue from public corporations is sufficient to repay the debt.
Takashi Imai, panel chairman, disagreed, saying the plan simply redistributes revenues from road-construction taxes, and ``would not create an additional burden on the public.''(IHT/Asahi: November 7,2002)
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