Japan aims to cut aid to postal-savings system to boost equities

Masahiro Okuno, a senior figure on the government’s tax panel, said
lawmakers aim to reduce assistance to the postal-savings system in
an attempt to boost the attractiveness of equities for individual
investors. He said government assistance that provides incentives for investors
to deposit money in the postal system is a tax on equity investment. “The government aid is a kind of premium for the postal-savings
system,” Okuno told reporters after a meeting of a tax panel
subcommittee that he heads. “We have agreed that securities-tax incentives alone have only a
limited impact on the stockmarket,” he said. “We are discussing the revision of the postal-savings system because
the government’s assistance to the system stops money flowing into
equities, by providing depositors with benefits for depositing funds
in postal savings.” Okuno said the government also aims to simplify the tax on equity
capital gains, eradicating the existing dual-taxation system, adding
that he hopes to introduce the revision ahead of the current
schedule of April 2003. “We have agreed to combine the dual equity capital-gains tax system
into a single, return-based charge,” he said. “There is a possibility that we will reach a consensus that the
return-based equity-gains system should be implemented earlier than
scheduled.” em/tb/jr
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Copyright 2001 AFX News.
Source: World Reporter (Trade Mark).
AFX EUROPE, 12th September 2001