JAPAN RULING PARTY FIXES DATE OF BUDGET HEARING
Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party
started moves to push through the delayed draft budget for
1987/88 through Parliament, deepening a clash with the
opposition which called the move rash and unforgivable.
    In the absence of the opposition, LDP members of parliament
decided at a meeting of the Lower House Steering Committee to
hold a public hearing on the draft budget on March 13 and 14,
parliamentary officials said.
    The step came after Parliament resumed deliberations last
Tuesday following a month-long opposition boycott over a
controversial government-proposed sales tax plan.
    Four opposition parties led by the Socialists have been
delaying budget deliberations in a bid to shelve the sales tax
on which the budget plan is based.
    A Socialist spokesman said the opposition would again
boycott parliament unless the LDP changed its mind.
    Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who has vowed to push
through the tax reforms, told reporters: "Watching closely
negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties, I would
like to avoid ... Passing (the budget) singlehandedly."
    The five pct tax, part of Nakasone's tax reform plan, is
planned to start next January to help offset cuts in individual
income and corporate tax.
    The opposition objected to fixing a date for the hearing
because the LDP could technically stop deliberations on the
budget and ram it through the budget committee and then a Lower
House plenary session, political analysts said.
    The four opposition parties called the LDP move "an
unforgivable, rash act" and said they would fight to scrap the
sales tax.
 REUTER
