Yuichiro Tamaki, Representative of the People’s Republic of Japan, referring to alternative sources of revenue following the abolition of the provisional gasoline tax rate: “We would like to have constructive discussions.

　Yuichiro Tamaki, 56, representative of the People’s Democratic Party of Japan, appeared as a guest on Fuji Television Network’s “Sunday News THE PRIME” (7:30 PM, Sunday) broadcast on September 9. He commented on the issue of alternative sources of revenue following the abolition of the provisional gasoline tax rate. Not only do they look alike, they look just like each other! Representative Tamaki and a female announcer who looks just like him. On October 31, the six parties of the ruling and opposition parties agreed to abolish the provisional gasoline tax rate on top of the gasoline tax on December 31. The agreement was reached without any alternative source of revenue being presented, although it was decided that the tax rate would be lowered in stages starting on October 13, resulting in a 1.5 trillion yen decrease in tax revenues. Mr. Tamaki commented on the abolition of the provisional tax rate, “The abolition of the provisional tax rate means that Tokyo benefits less and the regions benefit more, but conversely, it means that the regions have borne a heavy burden up to now. Not all areas have a well-developed public transportation system like Tokyo, so we have been asking those who need a car to go to the hospital or supermarket to bear the burden. When the provisional tax rate was introduced in 1974, it was originally intended to tax those who owned cars, which were a luxury item at the time, so I think it was targeted at those with high incomes. I believe that it is time to reorganize what we have been doing for the past 51 years, either provisionally or for the time being, since the provisional period started after two years. Although it took some time, we have been calling for the abolition of the provisional tax rate since the 2021 election, and I think it is good that the provisional tax rate has been abolished this time,” he said. Toshiyuki Matsuyama, commentary chairman of the same bureau, said, “One of the major issues behind the scenes is what to do about the financial resources. What is the KDP’s plan for answering this question of financial resources? Tamaki responded. Mr. Tamaki responded, “For the time being, we are going to take measures against price hikes, and until last year, we were going to use tax hikes on automobile users as a source of matching funds, so if we ask the same automobile users for a tax cut and tax increase, it would be meaningless. I think it would be a good idea to lower the tax rate as much as possible as a measure against price hikes. On the other hand, I think it would be good to have a proper discussion on permanent revenue sources, and the first thing to do is to review expenditures carefully. First of all, we need to review expenditures thoroughly, and also review special tax measures that are becoming less effective. For example, we are currently implementing a wage increase tax system that reduces taxes by about 700 billion yen. For example, even without such a tax system, large companies would have to raise wages by 5% or more to get and keep people, so now they can receive the benefit of tax reductions even with a 3% wage increase. So I wonder what part of the wage increase is really preferential treatment and policy support. I feel that there is no need to use taxpayers’ money to give preferential wage increases to large corporations, at least at the 3% level, so we should focus on this issue, or what kind of burden we should ask the ultra-wealthy to bear. Since the committee is going to discuss these issues, we would like to have constructive discussions as well.