The tweaks to the original proposal unveiled in June include a cut in the proposed tax rates for some real estate types, including for farmland, the government confirmed on Wednesday.

According to calculations of the Finance Ministry, the lower rates will reduce the planned budget revenues from the tax from EUR 233m to EUR 193m.

The daily Dnevnik wrote on today that the government has reduced the proposed tax rate on forests and farmland from 0.5% to 0.15-0.25%, although that for farm buildings has been kept at 0.5%.

The rate for regular houses and flats has been kept at 0.15%, while a surcharge of 0.35 points for empty buildings has been crossed.

In another change, not all sacral buildings would be taxed, as churches and chapels would be exempt.

The government is sticking by its proposal for a 0.8% tax rate on commercial and industrial buildings, while halving the proposed rate for energy buildings to 0.4%.

Other types of buildings and real estate, including cultural monuments and public buildings, would be taxed at 0.5%, as in the original proposal.

The final bill is expected to be unveiled by the government next week.

While the tweaks represent an attempt by the government to find consensus following extensive criticism from the opposition and various interest groups to the original proposal, it does not seem to have done enough to quell the complaints.

The Farmers' Trade Union told the STA on Wednesday that it was still not satisfied and would continue preparing for a nation-wide protest.

Likewise, the Agriculture and Forestry Chamber maintained that farmers would not accept any form of tax on land used for agricultural production.

Both organisations say that the Finance Ministry has not stuck to its promise that the new tax would not represent a significant increase in the tax burden for people.

They claim that the original proposal would have brought a 24-fold increase in the tax on land compared to the existing system, while the tweaked proposal would still result in an 18-fold increase in the amount farmers pay in taxes on their land.

Taxation of land and buildings used by farmers for production was also opposed in June by Agriculture Minister Dejan Židan, who said today that talks on the bill were continuing.

"We will stick to the promise given to farmers by the prime minister: that talks on the real estate tax will continue until the end of September...There should be no other interpretation of this agreement," said Židan.

His comments come after Finance Minister Uroš Čufer discussed the issue with representatives of the coalition on Wednesday. Public broadcaster TV Slovenija reported Čufer had maintained that the tax needs to be implemented and the latest proposal was all but final.

The Finance Ministry wants to implement the real estate tax in 2014 as a means of replacing three kind of fees for building land and buildings currently in place.

Revenues from the fees currently go directly to the municipalities, but the new real estate tax would be collected centrally, whereby a part of the proceeds would then be distributed to the municipalities.

While the government maintains that the tax burden will not increase for most people, the proposed tax would expand the tax base by including land and buildings which have until now not been taxed.

This is expected to bring in an additional EUR 240m in annual revenue to the national budget and EUR 40m in extra annual income for municipalities.