"As far as I know, our agreement is that at the end of next week, which is Thursday, that is when we will make all the final agreements," Läänemets said. "So you can get a kind of indicative feeling now, but actually a lot of important decisions will have to be taken next Thursday."

ERR asked Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi (Reform) if the Ministry of Finance has found places to cut in its area of ​​responsibility.

"I do not have them in front of me anymore, but we have ongoing debates here about whether everything the finance minister has proposed should be implemented. In my opinion, it's not for others to decide. No justifications have been presented, but of course, we are trying to save as much of our expertise and our people as possible, while cutting costs as agreed," he said.

Ligi said the point of contention is whether tax officials qualify as a security exception. "I must not be the champion of this exception because everyone would like to call themselves a security phenomenon," he noted.

The finance minister said he is not in favor of cuts at the expense of tax officials.

"There are other parallels, but the Tax and Customs Board has one unique advantage — it is the only entity that feeds the government," Ligi pointed out. "And for that reason, I have still expressed the position that we do not want to [make redundancies]. We have much bigger tasks than before. With all the chaos surrounding taxes, it's difficult to handle it with fewer people."

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