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Japan MOF panel divided over housing loan firms

TOKYO: A key advisory panel to Japan's finance minister has failed to reach a conclusion on the bad loan problem at housing loan firms and is divided on the use of public funds to help resolve the issue, an official at the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said.

The panel, under the Financial System Research Council, an advisory body, held its first meeting on Tuesday to discuss housing loan firms' bad loan problems.

The official said the panel wants to study the overall situation at the housing firms further and did not decide the direction that needs to be followed to solve the problem.

To research the issue, the ministry is to inspect Japan's eight housing loan firms in the latter half of this month, the official said.

Opinions were divided within the panel on whether Japan shouC SOF BN a4942ALL o c-sofu f BC-Turkish-firms-apply-f 08-08 0305 Turkish firms apply for 114,592-tonne sugar import

ANKARA, Aug 8 (Reuter) - Twenty private Turkish firms have applied to the treasury for permission to import a total of 114,592 tonnes of sugar at reduced customs duty, officials said.

Foreign Trade Undersecretariat (DTM) officials told Anatolia news agency 19 other private companies had earlier applied to import 230,265 tonnes of sugar after a government decree in June lowered the import duty to $100 per tonne from $400.

On July 21 the government, trying to meet local demand and a shortfall in emergency stocks after a decrease in sugar output this year, extended the deadline for imports at the reduced duty to September 30 from July 31, via another decree.

The second decree allowed for 200,000 tonnes of beet and cane sugar imports by private companies in addition to 250,000 tonnes already permitted in the first decree.

State run Sugar Factories (TURKSEKER) was also given permission to import 150,000 tonnes in June, bringing to 600,000 tonnes the total amount of imports at lower duty by Turkey.

Officials said TURKSEKER had imported 133,000 tonnes of sugar through two tenders it held in June.

DTM officials said sugar imports would help meet demand and stabilise price fluctuations in Turkey, which until last year was a net sugar exporter.

Farmers, disgruntled by the government's lower-than-expected base prices last year, reduced sugar sowings by 25 percent this year, leading to an estimated output of 1.4 million tonnes in 1995 against last year's 1.56 million tonnes.

They say further reductions in area will be seen next year if this year's beet base prices, to be announced soon, fail to please them.

They expect the prices to be at least 2,500 lira (5.5 cents) per kg of beet compared to 1,000 lira (2.2 cents) in 1994.-Reuter