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The Laws related to the Second Supplementary Budget of fiscal 2008 were enacted today. As a result, it will now be possible to implement the second stage of the "three-stage rocket" of economic countermeasures.
The Second Supplementary Budget contains inter alia budget items which form "Measures to Counter Difficulties in People's Daily Lives" and "Emergency Measures to Defend People's Daily Lives".
--Budget scale: 4.8 trillion yen (general budget account)
--Main contents include:
1) fixed-sum stipend (2 trillion yen)
2) major discount of highway tolls (500 billion yen)
3) emergency grants to revitalise the regions/for countermeasures to assist people's daily lives (600 billion yen)
4) emergency job creation programmes (150 billion yen; fund of 400 billion yen to be created together with resources from special-purpose budget accounts)
Utmost efforts will be made in order to revive the economy through an expeditious implementation of the Second Supplementary Budget, following the enactment today of the related laws.
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Preparations by municipalities are underway in order to make payments of the fixed-sum stipends.
--each person to receive 12,000 yen
--20,000 yen for each child and member of the elderly
I sincerely hope that the public will spend this money and thereby help to expand consumption.
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Highways tolls in the regions will be reduced on weekends to 1,000 yen or less, regardless of the distance travelled. (The toll for using the Metropolitan and Hanshin highways will be 500 yen on weekends.)
Preparations will be made so as to commence the basic reduction measures on 28 March, the first weekend day of the spring holiday period of most elementary and junior high schools.
I encourage the public to go on spring trips with their families.
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