Summary of newspapers of the previous days – 25. – 27. 2. 2011

Farmers will focus on regional bio-products in Bioakademie 2011

Organic farmers and bio-producers from all over the world will focus, at the 11th year of Bioakademie organized in summer in Břeclav, on problems of regional foods. Organizers from Pro-bio Organic Farmers Union announced it to ČTK. The action will take place from the 29th of June to the 1st of July. The conference wants to introduce several concepts of regional bio-foods production and sale in various countries, and to present functioning of the state support - financial and marketing. “We want to show these concepts directly in practice, it is a completely different kind of transmission of information.

SOCR: VAT increase will show itself in food prices

A planned unification of the value added tax to 20 percents will show itself fully in food prices whose consumption will decrease due to this fact, and VAT collection from food sale will not increase. A president of the Czech Confederation of Commerce and Tourism of the CR, Zdeněk Juračka, said it to ČTK today. According to him sellers can not dampen the VAT rate increase at the expense of their margins. Now, a decreased ten-percent rate of VAT is applied to foods. “The result (of the unification of VAT rate to 20 percents) will be that the VAT increase will fully show itself in consumer prices and consequently retail incomes will expectantly decrease.”

1.5 billion crowns will go to flood protection this year

54 flood-protection buildings for 1.45 billion crowns were finished in our territory last year. This year, next 56 buildings for the total 1.5 billion crowns should be terminated. The present financing of building for preventive flood protection is based on a credit provided to the Czech Republic by the European Investment Bank, and on public resources, and according to the plan it is secured till the end of 2013.

FCH: VAT unification will decrease food production and will lead to release

The Food Chamber (FCH) refuses a planned increase in rate of the value added tax in most foods from 10 to 20 percents. It will reputedly cause a decrease in food production in the Czech Republic and release of employees in the food industry. The biggest domestic non-government organization of food producers communicated it to ČTK in a press release. Economic ministers agreed that owing to a pension reform the VAT rates should be unified as soon as possible, maybe already in the last quarter of this year.