The government served up a fiscal reconstruction plan Tuesday that calls for achieving a surplus in the primary budget by the end of fiscal 2020 and keeping new bond issuance below this fiscal year's ¥44 trillion, but experts say the outline lacks specifics on how to curb the massive national debt or raise taxes.
The long-term fiscal management plan, approved by the Cabinet earlier in the day, appears to focus on improving the primary balance, under which revenues cover expenditures excluding interest payments on bonds and bond redemptions.
The government seeks to halve the primary balance deficit, estimated at ¥30.8 trillion for fiscal 2010, or 6.4 percent of gross domestic product, by fiscal 2015 and achieve a surplus by the end of fiscal 2020. Then it will strive to reduce the national debt, which now amounts to some 180 percent of GDP.