Food Control Special Account

Japanese: 食糧管理特別会計 - しょくりょうかんりとくべつかいけい

A special account was established in the national budget system to account for the purchase and sale of certain food and agricultural products such as rice and wheat under laws such as the Food Control Law. In addition to rice and wheat, which were subject to the Food Control Law, grains such as those subject to the Agricultural Products Price Stabilization Law and the Feed Supply and Demand Stabilization Law were also included in the accounting. Of these, rice, which the government directly controlled under the Food Control Law, had to purchase from farmers, the producers, at a relatively high price from the standpoint of agricultural policy, but sell to consumers at a relatively low price from the standpoint of consumer price control, which was a contradictory policy requirement from an accounting perspective. This difference between the purchase price and the selling price is called the "reverse spread" of rice prices. As a result, the special account's principle of independent accounting, which covers the purchase price and various expenses with the selling price, could not always be maintained, and the difference was sometimes made up from the general account of the country in the form of loss compensation and import food price difference subsidies. This is generally called the deficit of the Food Agency Account. Transfers from the general account to cover this deficit put pressure on the national general account budget. In order to reduce this deficit, a system was established in 1969 to officially approve the distribution of rice that was included in the distribution plan but did not go through the Food Agency system as a measure to reduce the amount of rice collected by the government. This was called "independently distributed rice" to distinguish it from black market rice. Due to the long-term rice surplus, the staple food-related expenses of the government expenditures had swelled and the financial base had deteriorated, so the expenditures of the Food Agency Account were set to be the same or lower than the previous year from fiscal 1998 under the Financial Structural Reform Act. However, since this did not lead to a fundamental reform of staple food-related expenses, in 2007 the Food Management Special Account and the Agricultural Management Foundation Strengthening Measures Special Account were merged to create a new Food Stable Supply Special Account. It was changed to be related to the development of the agricultural management foundation, the purchase and sale of reserve rice and wheat, etc.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia About Encyclopaedia Britannica Concise Encyclopedia Information

Japanese:

食糧管理法などの法律のもとで，政府が行なう米やムギなど特定の食糧や農産物の買い入れ，売り渡しの収支を経理するために国の予算制度のなかに立てられていた特別会計。食糧管理法の対象となっていた米，ムギのほか，農産物価格安定法や飼料需給安定法などの対象となっていた穀物なども経理の対象とした。このうち食糧管理法によって政府が直接統制をしていた米については，農業政策の立場から生産者たる農家に比較的高い価格の買い入れを行なう反面，消費者物価対策の立場から消費者には比較的安い価格の売り渡しを行なわねばならないという，経理的には矛盾を含んだ政策的要求を背負っていた。この買入価格と売渡価格の開きを米価の「逆ざや」と呼ぶ。このため売渡代金で買入代金や諸掛かりをまかなうという特別会計の独立採算のたてまえが必ずしも維持できないかたちになっており，損失補填金や輸入食糧価格差補給金などのかたちでその差額を国の一般会計から補填する場合があった。これを一般に食管会計の赤字と呼ぶ。この赤字を埋めるための一般会計からの繰り入れが国の一般会計予算を圧迫した。この赤字を減らすねらいもあって政府に集まる米の量を少なくする措置として 1969年から配給計画には組み入れるが食管制度を通さない米の流通を公認する制度が生まれた。これを闇米と区別する意味で自主流通米と呼んだ。長年の米余剰によって政府支出の主要食糧関係費はふくれあがり財政基盤が悪化し，食管会計の支出は財政構造改革法のもとで 1998年度から前年同額以下と定められた。しかし，主要食糧関係費の抜本的な改革につながらなかったことから 2007年に食糧管理特別会計と農業経営基盤強化措置特別会計を統合し，食料安定供給特別会計を新たに設けた。農業経営の基盤整備，備蓄米やムギなどの買い入れ，売り渡しに関するものに改められた。

出典　ブリタニカ国際大百科事典小項目事典ブリタニカ国際大百科事典小項目事典について　情報

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