Takenaka wants tax on Japanese privatised postal operations at start

Heizo Takenaka, minister in charge of the privatization of Japan’s postal services, said Sunday that entities assuming the operations now undertaken by Japan Post have to pay tax from April 2007, when the postal reform process starts.

Takenaka said in a television program that he wants those entities to assume the same obligations as private companies in April 2007. It is necessary to pay tax and join the nation’s deposit insurance system, he said.

Japan Post is exempted from paying the corporate tax and the deposit insurance premiums.

The government plans to split the public corporation into four private companies, expecting to complete the privatization process by fiscal 2017.

In the program, Takenaka also said that Yamato Transport Co. ‘s recent filing of an antitrust suit against Japan Post is a call for its full privatization to ensure competition on an equal footing.