A Finance Ministry advisory panel has drafted a proposal for the fiscal 2003 budget that calls for curtailing the salaries of civil servants, as well as unemployment and other welfare benefits, panel sources said Thursday.
The Fiscal System Council on Monday is expected to finalize the proposal, which will form a basic framework for the budget, they said.
The draft urges the government to streamline the overall budget and prioritize expenditures to follow up on this year's budget, which Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said is representative of his reform efforts.
The panel's proposal, acknowledging the deterioration in government finances, urges cutting unemployment benefits of people who leave their jobs for reasons other than being fired or laid off, including those who leave to get married, the sources said.
Welfare benefits should also be streamlined to reflect the prolonged deflation, they said.
The draft additionally urges the government to curtail overall personnel costs.