The government has no choice but to implement new tax increases, said Läänemets, whose party favors this route as against coalition partners Reform and Eesti 200's tendency towards austerity measures.

However tax hikes should only serve to hike the tax burden on the wealthier demographics, Läänemets added.

Eesti 200 leader and Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has praised the 5 percent across-the-board cuts, as part of a supplementary budget agreed upon Monday.

However, Läänemets argued that this is unreasonable, as the policy suggests a lack of priorities for the state.

Speaking to ETV morning show "Terevisioon," Läänemets said: "We need to question what will be sacrificed when we make the significant decisions come autumn."

"What services are we, as a state, willing to give up? And tax changes—are these coming too? As a social democrat, I say they must come, while the wealthy must contribute more," Läänemets continued.

In any case, Läänemets said any talk of changes to the taxation system not happening is illusory, as is talks of cuts not directly affect anyone.

"Everything will turn out be unpleasant and painful," he said.

New taxes cannot be levied on poorer and middle-income people, he added, as this would require the state to then start paying them benefits.

"Instead of redistributing benefits, people should be able to live decently on their existing wage," he went on.

As for the planned 5 percent across-the-board cut for the next year, Läänemets cited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an example.

"Here, personnel costs must be addressed. This means embassies and their staff. If we talk about a 5 percent cut, we must also talk about which countries' embassies we will close. We are approaching the limit of reasonableness with these cuts, where we can suffer both economically and socially. If I go abroad and cannot get any support from my state as a citizen, is that reasonable?" Läänemets inquired.

Another example came from the Ministry of the Interior's domain.

Läänemets said: "This well-sounding across-the-board cut will significantly reduce the number of police officers. We have calculated that in the future, the police will only respond to crimes against persons."

A third example derived from the education sector.

"This [across-the-board cut] means that we will have to eliminate support towards children's extracurricular activities. We would have to withdraw money from state high schools. With this plan, there will also be no wage increases coming for teachers," the minister enumerated.

Yesterday Läänemets told ERR a supplementary budget agreement at coalition level which will make cuts aimed at stopping the budgetary deficit from running above 3 percent of GDP, which would infringe EU rules.

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