This year's expenditure is being cut to a little over EUR 9bn, or EUR 1.1bn less than in the original budget document that was passed as early as the end of 2010 but whose implementation has been frozen.

Revenues are projected at EUR 7.9bn, which is more than half a billion euros less than originally planned.

Compared to the actual spending last year, expenditure is being cut by a little less than EUR 400m, but since the cost of interest payment will rise substantially, the government is cutting spending by about EUR 800m through measures in the omnibus bill on the balancing of public finances. The government started economising on material costs, but since this will not suffice, it made changes to legislation governing public expenditure.

The most significant cuts were initially planned in the funding of development and education, but due to the criticism from the public, the coalition awarded EUR 20m back to science and research. The Education, Science, Culture and Sport Ministry got back a total of EUR 29.2m, while the Labour, Family and Social Affairs Ministry got EUR 20m returned.

Due to the agreement that the government has reached with the social partners, the effect of the austerity measures on the cutting of budget expenditure will be EUR 130m lower, according to Finance Minister Janez Šušteršič.

This will be balanced out in other parts of the budget, partly with amendments to the supplementary budget (some EUR 50m) and partly with the subsequent act on the implementation of the budget, the minister said.

The supplementary budget does not yet take into consideration some of the organisational changes in the public administration and the effect of some of the newly introduced taxes, such as the taxes on real estate, expensive vehicles and vessels.

During the debate, the coalition MPs labelled the supplementary budget an urgently needed measure and a precondition for further economic growth, while the opposition criticised it as being unrealistic and uncoordinated.