英字新聞

いつもは一方的に政府の方針を支持する傾向のある読売新聞も、さすがに声を上げました。
読売新聞は、ずっと以前から、新聞は軽減税率対象品目に指定すべきだという主張でしたから、それは理解できます。
麻生財務相の本当の狙いは、軽減税率にすると、それで未来永劫、税収がコンスタントに減るからなんです。
巷では、あほう太郎と蔑視されている麻生財務相ですが、実は、なかなかのしたたかものなんです。


The Yomiuri Shimbun
Giving up on realizing reduced tax rates for being ‘bothersome’ too irresponsible
軽減税率代替策　「面倒くさい」で済まされるか

A policy that takes the easy way out by depending on handout measures would not protect people’s livelihoods from the increasing burden of a future increase in the consumption tax rate.
　安易な給付金のばらまきでは、今後の消費税率引き上げに伴う負担増から、国民生活を守ることはできまい。

The Finance Ministry has drafted measures to alleviate taxpayers’ burdens when the consumption tax rate is raised to 10 percent.
　財務省が、消費税率を１０％に引き上げる際の負担緩和策の原案をまとめた。

The ministry says a 10 percent tax should be levied on all purchased goods and consumers would later receive “benefit payments” equivalent to two percentage points of the consumption tax on food and beverages.
　全品目に１０％の税率を課した上で、飲食料品の購入で消費者が払った税率２％分の相当額を、後から給付するという。

Although the ministry says the idea is an alternative to a system of reduced tax rates, the proposal is fraught with flaws, and can hardly be called a convincing alternative.
　財務省は軽減税率の代案と位置づけるが、欠陥だらけで、代替策とはなり得ない。

Explaining the ministry’s idea, Finance Minister Taro Aso had the gall to say, “Introducing plural tax rates [reduced tax rates] would be bothersome, so we used our ingenuity to make the matter less of a problem.” This is extremely irresponsible.
　麻生財務相は、「複数税率（軽減税率）を入れることは面倒くさい。それを面倒くさくないようにするところが手口だ」と説明した。あまりに無責任ではないか。

The Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito included a consumption tax rate-related agreement in their platforms in the 2014 election of the House of Representatives. In December 2013, the two ruling coalition parties had agreed to introduce lower tax rates on daily necessities.
　自民、公明両党は２０１３年１２月に、生活必需品の税率を低く抑える軽減税率導入で合意し、１４年の衆院選公約にも掲げている。

Although the task of determining what items should be eligible for reduced tax rates would undoubtedly be difficult, discarding the result of discussions by the ruling coalition parties merely because the decision is “bothersome” is unforgivable.
　軽減税率の対象品目の線引きが難しいのは事実だが、与党が積み重ねてきた議論を、「面倒くさい」といった理由で投げ出すことは、到底許されない。

The ruling coalition parties should fulfill their political responsibility by ensuring that reduced tax rates are introduced on such daily necessities as food, newspapers and others.
　与党は１０％時に食料品や新聞などの必需品に軽減税率を導入し、政治の責任を果たすべきだ。

Far from being realistic

Under the draft, consumers would have to pay for all goods that include the full 10 percent consumption tax rate, so they would hardly feel any effects of the tax burden alleviation system. There is a possibility that the benefits received later will be put into their savings. Under the circumstances, it is strongly feared that personal consumption will cool off.
　原案では、税率１０％で代金を支払うため、消費者は負担軽減の実感が乏しい。後で受け取った給付金が貯金に回る可能性もある。消費を冷え込ませる恐れが強い。

Other problems involve the ministry-envisioned scheme of figuring out the amounts of benefits by projecting the total amount of consumption according to such criteria as income brackets and family composition. The shoddy way the system has been designed in deciding on benefit payments without considering the reality of what happens when people shop cannot help but give rise to doubts regarding the adequacy and impartiality of the ministry’s plan.
　所得や家族構成などに応じて消費額を推計し、給付額を割り出す仕組みにも問題がある。買い物の実態と関係なく金額を決める粗雑な制度設計には、適正さや公平性への疑念が拭えない。

The Finance Ministry’s draft covers almost all items of food and beverages. Fiscal expenditures for funding the planned benefits, if provided to all households, would run up to a massive \1.3 trillion. Should restrictions on the benefit payments be imposed on the basis of income brackets, a sense of unfairness would arise again over where to draw a line in imposing income-based restrictions.
　財務省原案は、ほぼ全ての飲食料品を対象にしている。全世帯に給付すると、財政負担は約１・３兆円と巨額になる。圧縮のために所得制限をかければ、線引きを巡る新たな不公平感を生じよう。

The ministry’s plan has incorporated utilization in the future of the My Number system, but the proposed use of the system for the benefit payments is nothing more than the ministry’s desperation attempt to avert criticism against the benefit system for being a handout measure, so it should be deemed unrealistic.
　共通番号（マイナンバー）の将来的な活用も盛り込まれたが、ばらまき批判をかわすための苦し紛れのアイデアで、非現実的だ。

The draft claims that if information of individuals’ purchases at retailers is read using their My Number card to accumulate their purchase history, the amounts of benefit payments will be calculated accurately.
　原案は、マイナンバーカードの情報を店頭で読み取り、買い物の履歴を蓄積すれば、給付金額を正確に算出できるとしている。

Would it really be possible to build a data management system to have all of the nation’s retailers, including small stores, equipped with scanners and related devices necessary to read purchasing records?
　小さな商店まで、くまなく読み取り機を設置し、データ管理のシステムを構築する。そんなことが可能なのだろうか。

Considering the government’s stringent finances, it will most likely be inevitable for the government to raise the consumption tax rate to a level above 10 percent sometime in the future. For the purpose of building a framework geared to securing steady revenue sources for financing social security outlays while minimizing the adverse impact the social security system would have on personal consumption, introduction of a reduced tax rate system is indispensable.
　厳しい財政事情を踏まえれば、消費税率はいずれ、１０％を上回る水準への引き上げが避けがたい。個人消費への悪影響を抑えながら社会保障財源を着実に確保していく枠組みを築くためにも、軽減税率の導入は不可欠である。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 7, 2015)