TOKYO -(Dow Jones)- A Finance Ministry advisory panel has drafted a proposal for the fiscal 2003 budget, calling for curtailing unemployment and other welfare benefits as well as salaries for civil servants, panel sources said Thursday, according to Kyodo News. The Financial System Council is expected to finalize the proposal next Monday, the sources said, according to Kyodo.
The proposal will form a basic framework for the budget for the fiscal year that begins next April.
The draft urges the government to streamline the overall budget and prioritize expenditures to follow up on the current year's budget, which Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said represents the government's reform efforts.
The sources said that given the deterioration in government finances, the panel's proposal recommends cutting unemployment benefits for those who leave jobs for reasons other than being fired or laid off, such as to get married or on reaching the mandatory retirement age.
Welfare benefits should also be streamlined to reflect the prolonged deflation in the economy, they said.
As for salaries for civil servants, the draft proposal urges the government to curtail overall personnel costs by taking into account the severe employment conditions in the private sector.
(This story was originally published by Dow Jones Newswires)
Copyright (c) 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
All Rights Reserved