Japan eyes ¥30,000 benefits for low-income households

The government is considering providing ¥30,000 ($192) in benefits to each low-income household exempted from residential tax payments as part of a planned economic package, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
The government plans to add ¥20,000 per child to the benefits, which are designed to support low-income households hit hard by soaring prices for food and other daily necessities.
It aims to finalize the package this month. A fiscal 2024 supplementary budget, designed to finance the package, is likely to earmark over ¥13 trillion in spending that is set to be more than the ¥13.2 trillion under the previous year’s extra budget.
The economic package is also expected to include a plan to resume subsidies to cover electricity and city gas fees in January next year, aiming to provide the support until March.
In January and February, the government plans to provide ¥2.5 per kilowatt-hour of electricity and ¥10 per cubic meter of city gas, the same levels as in October this year.
The amounts of subsidies will be reduced to ¥1.3 for electricity and ¥5 for city gas in March.
The government initially started the electricity and city gas subsidies in January last year and once ended them in May this year. But it resumed the program in August, providing the subsidies until October.
The government is also expected to keep its gasoline subsidies in place beyond the end of December, though at reduced amounts. The gasoline subsidies started in January 2022.