Monday January 26, 07:44 AM
Japan close to enacting stimulus budget
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's parliament was on Monday in the final stages of enacting a 54-billion-dollar extra budget to fight recession as the ruling coalition and opposition clashed over cash handouts.
The opposition-controlled upper house approved a budget bill that excluded a government plan to give the public two trillion yen (22 billion dollars) in a bid to kickstart spending.
However, the money handouts were still expected to be given the go-ahead, with the bill likely to pass later Monday, as the ruling coalition controls the more powerful lower house.
The lower house earlier this month approved the 4.8-trillion-yen extra budget, which also includes loans for unemployed workers and financial support for ailing banks.
Prime Minister Taro Aso said the cash handouts were needed to boost the world's second largest economy, where companies are slashing tens of thousands of jobs as overseas demand dries up for cars, electronics and other exports.
But opinion polls show that most of the public believes the handouts -- averaging 12,000 yen a person -- would do little to help the economy.
Yoshimi Watanabe, a senior lower house lawmaker, defected from Aso's Liberal Democratic Party in part due to his fears that the handouts would worsen Japan's already severe public debt.
The spending plan is the second round of supplementary funding for the year until March and exceeds the first extra budget of 1.81 trillion yen.
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