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Heizo Takenaka, minister in charge of the privatisation 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 privatisation process by fiscal 2017.

Japan Post, the world’s biggest savings bank, will start paying taxes after it’s sold off in April 2007, said Heizo Takenaka, the minister overseeing the breakup and sale of the state-run company.

“It’s important for Japan Post to start on the same footing as other private companies,” Takenaka said on Asahi Television’s Sunday Project program. “We want to give Japan Post as much freedom and responsibility as we can.”

Taxes from Japan Post would help add to government revenue. Japan’s national debt, the highest in the world, expanded 3.7 percent to 729.23 trillion yen (USD6.6 trillion) in the three months ended June 30 from the previous quarter, the Ministry of Finance said last month.