TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) - Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said the ministry will not issue new government bonds specifically to cover an expected shortfall in tax revenue, compared with the original target, for the year to March 2002. "If the tax revenue shortfall stays at a relatively low level of 2-3 trln yen, we will not issue new bonds to cover the gap," he told a committee of the Lower House of parliament. Responding to a legislator's proposal that the ministry should fund any larger shortfall in revenue shortage through bond issues, Shiokawa merely said he would "study" the suggestion.