OREANDA-NEWS. February 14, 2014. The Ministry of Finance has drafted a bill that will make public the amount of tax businesses pay the state.

Minister Jurgen Ligi said in a press release said that publishing a company's tax slips will not be an expensive measure, but will support more honest competition between businesses, adding that the measure will show the size of the contribution a company makes to society.

The ministry cites Lithuania, where a similar scheme has been put into effect as an example, where companies which pay more tax are acknowledged by society.

The idea was proposed by the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and if passed, the Tax Board would publish quarterly figures for each company on how much tax, including pensions and unemployment insurance, has been paid.

The bill would also extend the period that tax returns can be held for additional inspection by the Tax Board from 30 to 60 days. That would only affect questionable returns, and 95 percent of tax advances will still be paid back in four days.

The ministry hopes to put the draft law into practice by July 1 this year.

The bill is another in the line of attempts by Ligi to curb tax avoidance. His last idea, to mandate that companies would have to declare each financial transaction over 1,000 euros, was rejected by the President in December.