Japan budget sees FY 15/16 tax revenue at 24-yr high of 54.5t yen: sources

[TOKYO] Japan's budget for next fiscal year will forecast 24-year high tax revenues of $460 billion as corporate profits surge under the economic growth policies of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, people involved in the process said on Tuesday.

The budget for the year from April, expected to top 96 trillion yen (US$800 billion) and to be approved by Abe's cabinet on Jan 14, will forecast tax revenues of 54.5 trillion yen, the highest since 1991, the government and ruling coalition sources told Reuters.

The weak-yen and easy-money growth policies of "Abenomics"have spurred big increases in Japanese corporate profits. This is expected to boost tax revenues by 4.5 trillion yen from this fiscal year's initial budget projection, even though Abe delayed a planned increase in the national sales tax that was to have taken effect in October of this year.

Government sources said last week the government would cut its bond issuance next fiscal year by more than 3 trillion yen to below 38 trillion yen as a result of the higher tax revenues, the third reduction in a row.

This is good news for a government struggling to curb the highest debt level in the industrial world, at more than twice gross domestic product.

REUTERS