The government wants to hammer out by the end of March its stance on raising the 5 percent consumption tax, newly appointed National Policy Unit minister Satoshi Arai said Wednesday.
"We would like to find a direction (for discussions) by the end of March," he said.
Official debate over increasing the sales tax is supposed to start at the end of this year and will include how the government would spend the increased revenue, how the regressive nature of the tax could be offset and when it would be cut, he said.