Latvian minister faces fine for forgetting to declare 1 mln euro loan to son

Latvian Health Minister Guntis Belevics will probably be fined for failing to declare he had loaned his son one million euro (1.12 million U.S. dollars) in his government official's statement, the Latvian tax authority said.

The State Revenue Service has asked Latvian lawmakers' permission to penalize the health minister of the ruling centrist Greens and Farmers Union (ZZS) for the omission and also for missing the deadline for the statement's submission.

The revenue service said Belevics filed his government official's statement four days after the Dec. 4, 2014 deadline. Upon examining the statement, the tax authority's staff found that the minister had failed to declare a one million euro loan to his son.

Although the financial police refused to take criminal action against Belevics, as they found no criminal offences on his part, an administrative probe was launched into the violations.

In all likelihood, Belevics will be fined 350 euros, but the revenue service said it first had to ask the parliament's permission to punish the minister, although Belevics has voiced readiness to pay the fine voluntarily to avoid "humiliation in the parliament".

"I was drawing up the statement for the first time in my life as a government official and forgot to include the transaction I had once concluded with my son. Since the declaration system is electronic, I was unable to make any corrections when I realized this," the minister told the media on Monday. (1 euro = 1.12 U.S. dollars) Endit