The transport ministry may give tax relief to Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) in an attempt to reduce the financial burden stemming from the carrier's repairs to the Tokaido Shinkansen Line, ministry officials said Wednesday.
The favorable tax treatment would be offered in the form of a reserve fund for repair and maintenance work on the bullet train line, annual contributions to which would be treated as losses to help JR Tokai save on corporate tax payments, the officials from the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry said.
The ministry and JR Tokai are putting the final touches to the proposed fund -- working out details such as its scale and whether to make bullet train repair costs subject to the fund -- while calculating how much money will be required for repair work, they said.