The Diet enacted Jan. 27 a second supplementary budget featuring a controversial cash handout plan following an intensified confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties in the divided Diet.

A joint committee of Upper and Lower House members was set up to discuss the second supplementary budget for fiscal 2008. KYODO PHOTO

Although the opposition-controlled House of Councilors on Jan. 26 passed a bill to revise the extra budget to remove the cash handout plan, the ¥4.79 trillion budget was eventually enacted without the deletion as the decision of the more powerful House of Representatives prevailed in line with constitutional provisions.

With the enactment of the extra budget, the focus of parliamentary debate will now shift to a fiscal 2009 budget.

But deliberations on the extra budget's related bills covering such matters as allocation for the cash handout plan have not started in the Upper House, making it unlikely for the handout to be implemented anytime soon.

On Jan. 26, the Upper House passed the opposition-proposed amended bill, but it was later rejected by the ruling coalition of the LDP and New Komeito at the Lower House, which passed the extra budget Jan. 13.

With the two houses coming to different decisions, a joint committee of the upper and lower chambers was set up but ended its discussions Jan. 27 without reaching a compromise.

The opposition parties are against the cash handout plan, saying it is unpopular with the public, and that the money should be used for measures such as pensions and medical care instead.