Summary of newsmakers from the previous day 30. 3. 2005

Ministers found out a way to subsidize food companies

The minister of agriculture, Jaroslav Palas, and industry and trade, Milan Urban, have agreed on creating a new fund, which will be available for food companies. They want to remedy the mistake which prevented companies from drawing money from EU funds. It has been released in today´s Hospodářské noviny. So far, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has promised to allocate approximately 70 million CZK to this programme. The head of the parliamentary agricultural committee, Ladislav Skopal, estimates that the Ministry of Agriculture is likely to provide another 200 million CZK. Food processors require 0.5 milliard CZK. The government is to decide on the rest of the amount of money needed.

Mad cow disease did not ruined them

Agricultural businesses, which were stricken by BSE mad cow disease half a year ago, are now in the clear. Zeos company in Lomnice nad Popelkou has to purchase around 50 heads of cattle and then, they will have gained back their herd which once comprised of almost 3,000 animals. „We intend to buy cows also in the second half of this year,“ explained the director of the company.

New rules for goods origin

The joint European Union trade policy enables countries beyond the EU, taking advantage of one of the forty preferential treatments, to export to the European Union with customs allowance. Exporters have to submit a certificate of origin to prove that the goods proceed from the preferential partner. However, there are now so many ways to prove the origin that it negatively affects the trade and encourages corruption. The European Commission thus proposed a strategy heading towards the implementation of the single and simplified way of proving the origin of the imported goods.

People won´t infuence the use of taxes

Today is the last day for submitting the statement of taxable income. People can´t, however, decide upon where the money, transferred to the state, should be used. This could change during the next two years. The Ministry of Justice elaborated and submitted to the government´s legislative council a bill, according to which people could send one per cent of the collected taxes to non-profit-making organizations. A similar act on tax allocation has already come into force in Slovakia or in Hungary, where approximately a third of people take advantage of it.