The Finance Ministry will push ahead with its plan to earmark 2.7 trillion yen for a supplementary budget for fiscal 2001, despite the ruling coalition's rejection of the plan, Vice Finance Minister Toshiro Muto said Thursday.
"Policy steps incorporated in the government's priority reform package can be financed by our extra budget plan," Muto told a news conference. "Therefore, we will present this plan to a meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy scheduled tomorrow."
While trying to work out an agreement with the ruling coalition headed by the Liberal Democratic Party, the government wants to determine the framework of the extra budget at today's council meeting and formalize it next week.
The ministry had proposed that the government compile a supplementary budget of about 2.7 trillion yen to finance measures to tackle unemployment, but the LDP believes the size of the extra budget is too small given the ongoing harsh economic climate.