"No, I should stay on for a few more days," Vėsaitė told BNS on Monday when asked about her plans to step down.
"We'll see then. I'm waiting for the coalition's decision. The presumption of innocence is still in effect in Lithuania," she added.
Vėsaitė stressed she would stay in the post, if she secured support from the ruling Social Democratic Party and other partners in the ruling coalition.
Earlier on Monday, President Dalia Grybauskaitė stated that Prime Minister Butkevičius should look for a new candidate for economy minister.
"The actions of the economy minister (Birutė Vėsaitė) feature characteristics of open political corruption. This may affect the country's prestige and put off transparent investment. Therefore, the prime minister should search for a new candidate for economy minister," presidential adviser Daiva Ulbinaitė communicated the president's opinion to BNS.
Last week, Vėsaitė and her two advisers flew to a business forum in Kazakhstan on a charter eight-seat business-class airplane booked by Arvi company. The round-trip flight of the three officials cost 8,100 litas (EUR 2,345), i.e., 2,700 litas per person.
Nevertheless, civil aviation specialists say the charter flight on a business-class airplane to and from Astana may cost about 100,000 litas, which means about 13,000 litas per passenger.
The potential conflict of interests has been taken to the Chief Official Ethics Commission. The parliamentary opposition is drafting interpellation against the minister.
