Slovenia cannot afford a deeper deficit, as it will not be able to get loans, Finance Minister Janez Šušteršič told the parliamentary Finance and Monetary Committee on Saturday, as the body discussed the budget documents ahead of third reading.

The government is planning to save in virtually all fields. However, investment funds are to go up, due to money drawn from EU funds.

To increase budget revenue, the government has also decided to introduce several new taxes and increase duties.

The success in meeting budget goals will depend on the implementation of the pension reform, which was passed by the National Assembly yesterday. The reform is expected to bring in EUR 150m in 2013 alone.

The budget implementation bill, which is a part of this legislation package, moreover stipulates that Slovenia may only take out EUR 3.1m loans each year.

The bill moreover introduces stricter provisions on the funding of institutions, prohibits efficiency bonuses, decreases public broadcaster licence fee by 5% and cuts the public sector pay bill by 10%.

The debate at the National Assembly will take place amidst calls from public sector trade unions for a rejection of the budgets and threats of launching referendum procedures to stay their implementation.