The National Assembly passed on 13 December a bill on post-flood reconstruction and development to speed up reconstruction after the devastating August floods and improve resilience to natural disasters in the long run.

To help fund the effort, the bill imposes an increase in corporate income tax of 3 percentage points to 22% and a 0.2% tax on bank total assets from 2024 to 2028.

Other sources include a part of the profit made by the Slovenian Sovereign Holding, budget funds that will also be backed by EU aid, and donations. These will all be transferred to a dedicated financial facility.

Coming as the first systemic piece of reconstruction legislation after several stop-gap measures, the bill provides for aid to individuals and businesses, infrastructure construction, watercourse management, speedier administrative procedures, agriculture, environmental protection, heritage protection, health, psychosocial assistance, development, social affairs, as well as sources of financing thereof.

One of the measures is a EUR 200 million guarantee scheme for individuals fixing or rebuilding their homes, while businesses will also be able to rely on a combination of loan guarantees and interest subsidies.

Administrative procedures and levies related to construction are being simplified, including those related to zoning and public procurement.

Among other things, the bill is to speed up and simplify procedures for replacement buildings for around 330 homes that were either destroyed in the August floods or at risk of potential new floods.

"The bill puts in place mechanisms not only for speedier reconstruction but mainly for protection against future natural disasters and at the same time speeding up development of the affected areas," said Boštjan Šefic, the head of the government's reconstruction office.

The opposition was critical of the possibility of expropriation of those who will not want to move out of the areas designated as being at risk of floods or where flood safety measures such as retention basins will be set up.

It did however win support for an amendment under which spending will be reviewed the Court of Audit once a year.

Business have criticised the temporary increase in taxes, arguing that it has not been set out clearly how the money will be spent. They say it will slow down corporate investment and make the Slovenian economy less competitive.

The government in turn argues that the economy is strong and resilient enough and that the taxation will not depart substantially from the European average.