Their turnover is expected to continue to rise and given such an upward trend, Mesec believes that the tax could raise some EUR 10 million for the budget next year.

Presenting the proposal at a press conference on Wednesday, he pointed out that the first six out of the top ten global firms were tech companies - Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Alibaba.

The market value of these corporations is US$ 9,291 billion, roughly 173 times Slovenia's GDP, said Mesec, who finds it outrageous that they are paying virtually zero taxes in Slovenia and the EU, especially considering that they are capitalising on the sale of data for advertising purposes.

Due to outdated tax systems, such companies are among the most profitable in the world and do not give back enough, he argued.

Mesec pointed out that the EU Commission proposed new tax rules for the taxation of the digital economy in 2018, however the initiative was vetoed by four member states.

Nevertheless, many EU countries have introduced the new law, and in June last year, Slovenia's parliamentary Finance Committee urged the Finance Ministry to draw up the relevant bill by April this year.

Since the ministry did not come up with the proposal, the Left has stepped in, said Mesec.