The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly's finance committee voted Thursday in favor of an ordinance bill to levy a size-based corporate tax on major banks operating within the metropolis.
The committee members unanimously voted to support a draft ordinance that will place a tax of up to 3 percent on banks with net assets of 5 trillion yen or more. The bill is expected to clear the full assembly on March 30 in time for its introduction in fiscal 2000, which starts April 1.
The move comes after a month of deliberations within the assembly that included questions posed to Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara and testimony from Katsuyuki Sugita, chairman of the Japanese Bankers Association.