Japan's Suga: Not true PM Abe has decided to delay sales tax hike

"There is no such fact. It is utterly groundless," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference on Monday.

He repeated that the government will increase the levy to 10 percent from the current 8 percent as planned next April unless there was a financial crisis on the scale of the Lehman Brothers collapse or a major natural disaster.

He made comment after a media report over the weekend that Abe would postpone the sales tax increase as it would threaten the nation's efforts to beat prolonged deflation.

(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Chris Gallagher)