Gasoline prices are set to fall by ¥25 per liter after the ruling bloc and opposition camp failed to agree Monday on extending provisional extra levies on gas and other auto-related taxes.
The Diet, however, approved a stopgap bill to maintain until the end of May various other special tax measures that would have expired Monday, the final day of fiscal 2007. This step was also part of the government's original tax package.
"The moment has finally arrived when we can (meet the public's expectations for) lower gasoline prices at a time when (the cost of) everything else is rising," said Yukio Hatoyama, secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan, the top opposition force.
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