A sign for the National Tax Agency is seen in this file photo. (Mainichi/Kazuo Motohashi)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan estimates it will post around 65 trillion yen ($570 billion) in tax revenue for fiscal 2022, the largest amount on record on an initial budget basis, on the back of the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, government sources said Wednesday.

       The government, meanwhile, is considering setting its general-account expenditures at 107.5 trillion yen in the year starting April, boosted by snowballing social security costs and defense spending, according to the sources.

       It would be the 10th straight year for general-account outlays to renew record high levels.

       Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet is set to approve the initial fiscal 2022 budget as early as Dec. 24, the sources added.

       The government has also revised upward its estimate on tax revenue for fiscal 2021 by 6.43 trillion yen to 63.88 trillion yen, topping the previous record of 60.82 trillion yen in fiscal 2020, according to the sources.

       Fiscal 2020 tax revenue was buoyed by the consumption tax rate hike by 2 percentage points to 10 percent in October 2019.

       A focus of the initial fiscal 2022 budget is how much the government can cut new bond issuance from 43.60 trillion yen on an initial basis in fiscal 2021.

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