Upper House Starts Discussions on Gasoline Tax Bill

   Tokyo, June 21 (Jiji Press)--The House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, started discussions on an opposition-sponsored gasoline tax cut bill on Saturday, the day before this year's ordinary Diet session ends on Sunday.
   The opposition camp is demanding that the bill be put to a vote in the Upper House Committee on Financial Affairs and then in the full chamber by the end of Saturday, with an eye on the upcoming Upper House election, expected to take place on July 20.
   However, Junichi Ishii, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's parliamentary affairs chief in the Upper House, told Yoshitaka Saito, his counterpart from the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, at their meeting on the day that the bill does not deserve a vote.
   The bill to abolish the provisional gasoline tax rate, effective July 1, was jointly submitted by the CDP and six other opposition parties earlier this month. On Friday, it passed the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, where the LDP-Komeito coalition lacks a majority.
   There is little chance that the bill will pass the Upper House, where the ruling coalition holds a majority.

(2025/06/21-12:48)