The Diet has passed a ¥5.465 trillion supplementary budget for fiscal 2013. This budget is problematic because it includes items that had been deemed wasteful and thus recommended for elimination from the fiscal 2014 budget.
The revival of these items is tantamount to public deception. How can people trust the government, which insists that it is serious about financial reconstruction, after this move?
The Diet spent only five days deliberating the supplementary budget, which is the main pillar of an economic package designed to combat the negative effects of the April consumption tax hike. The Finance Ministry and Diet usually just give supplementary budgets a perfunctory examination. They should discard this habit, which doesn't serve the public interest, and carefully review them.
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