As much as 8.7 trillion yen of the government's fiscal investment and loan program, or 26.7 percent of the initial budget of 32.55 trillion yen, was left unused in fiscal 2001, according to a report released Friday by the Finance Ministry.

The FILP, known as "zaito" and often referred to as the government's second budget, is designed to finance state-affiliated and public corporations via the ministry's Fiscal Loan Fund.

Those institutions have been reviewing their projects in an effort to reform the FILP, but the latest data are likely to further accelerate debate over the abolition and consolidation of institutions that use the zaito money, especially government-affiliated financial institutions.

Among those institutions, Government Housing Loan Corp. reported the largest amount of unused funds, amounting to some 6.01 trillion yen, about 70 percent of its initial zaito program budget, because of increasing competition with private-sector financial firms in the housing loan business, according to the ministry.

It was followed by the Development Bank of Japan, with 482 billion yen, and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, with 468.2 billion yen.

Under the reform of the FILP, institutions started raising funds to finance their projects by issuing bonds known as FILP agency bonds.

Of the 1.106 trillion yen planned by 20 institutions, 18 institutions issued 1.004 trillion yen in FILP agency bonds, or 91 percent of the planned amount, according to the ministry.