Tokyo, September 5

Japan may exempt some food and beverages from a planned increase in the sales tax, government sources said.

PM Shinzo Abe’s government plans to raise the nationwide sales tax to 10 per cent in 2017 from eight per cent currently to pay for rising healthcare costs, but many politicians worry about the impact on low-income households.

The government will use a national identity number system it plans to introduce for tax and social security to administer tax rebates on purchases of some food and drinks, the sources said.

The number system is similar to a social security number in the US.