The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's fiscal 2001 budget released Wednesday underscores that belt-tightening options have been exhausted, with the general expenditure portion of the package rising 0.3 percent from the initial budget for the current year.

General expenditures, which exclude bond repayments, subsidies for municipal governments and other priorities, came to 4.48 trillion yen in the 2001 budget, with the total budget coming to 6.2 trillion yen for fiscal 2001.

"The metro government's fiscal status is still in critical condition," Gov. Shintaro Ishihara told a news conference Wednesday.