TOKYO: Despite the economic damage from the COVID-19 outbreak, Japan’s tax receipts are expected to have topped 60 trillion yen (US$540 billion) in the fiscal year that ended in March, according to two official sources. Even though substantial COVID-19 spending handed out last year has added to the industrial world’s largest public debt burden, the bountiful tax revenue could soothe concerns about the coronavirus’s impact on state coffers, possibly fueling calls for more fiscal stimulus.
The figure was higher than the government’s initial projection of 55.1 trillion yen, owing to a surge in company earnings from strong U.S. and Chinese economic recoveries, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.
The other two major sources of tax collection, sales tax and income tax, also exceeded expectations, allowing total tax receipts to surpass the previous high of 60.4 trillion yen set in the fiscal year that ended in March 2019, according to the sources.
According to them, the increase in the sales tax from 8% to 10% in October 2019 helped improve tax collection on a full-year basis in the previous fiscal year.
(1 US dollar = 110.5400 JPY)
(Takaya Yamaguchi reported, Leika Kihara and Tetsushi Kajimoto wrote, Chang-Ran Kim and Shri Navaratnam edited)
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