TOKYO. Sept 8: Japan s finance minister and three other high-ranking administrators said Friday they would dock their own pay to atone for a major tax evasion scandal Involving a former subordinate. reports AP.

Finance Minister Masayoshi Takemura and the others decided to take pay cuts for September and October for failing to properly oversee Yoshio Nakajima, former chief of the ministry's Institute of Fiscal and Monetary Policy, who resigned from the ministry this summer.

The ministry said Thursday that Nakajima failed to pay taxes on more than 50 million yen (500.000 dollars) in cash "gifts"' from friends. The scandal was a blow to Japan's most powerful government body, which receives much of the credit for engineering Japan's economic success.

Money scandals involving politicians are common in Japan, but the career bureaucrats In the Finance Ministry

enjoy a reputation as being among Japan's best-educated, most incorruptible administrators They are also at the centre of delicate efforts to rescue the nation's banks from mountains of bad debt.

Nakajima. 53, resigned July 28 as head of the ministry think tank. Hiroshi Watanabe, the chief of the ministry's secretarial division. said Nakajima received the cash from businessmen and acquaintances over 10 years.

Nakajima also received 100 million yen in low-interest loans for six to seven years from an unnamed acquaintance. Watanabe said.

The ministry, which has been investigating Nakajima's finances, denied that the money represented bribes, but it said he failed to report the gifts on his taxes as required by law.

Takemura, Vice Finance Minister Kyosuke Shinozawa, and Yoji Wakui, director of the finance minister's secretariat. decided to take pay

cuts of 20 per cent for September and October. Takeshi Komura, director general of the Budget Bureau, will take a pay cut of ten per cent.

Nakajima formerly served as deputy chief of the Budget Bureau, which has broad in-lluence in deciding Japan’s national budget. ,

Japanese government ministers receive official monthly salaries of 1.63 million yen (16.300 dollars! while vice-ministers get 1 33 million yen (13,300 dollars).

Top finance ministry officials are trying to limit the faUout from the scandal, explaining that Nakajima was unfamiliar with Japan's tax laws and promising to stiffen ethical standards.

"We are very sorry that a member of opr staff has acted to hurt the trust of the people." Shinozawa said Thursday at a press conference. . - U

No other ministry officials have been accused of accepting improper gifts.