Business briefs

Lower house of Parliament upholds ban on privatisation of regional hospitals; Forbes magazine survey: Czech Republic has the world's 17th highest tax rate; Rent deregulation bill makes it through first reading in Parliament; Four companies remain in $1 billion Czech Army tender; This year's agricultural production to be lowest in 15 years

Lower house of Parliament upholds ban on privatisation of regional hospitals

The lower chamber or Parliament has voted down the Senate's veto of an amendment banning the privatisation of regional hospitals. The senior ruling Social Democrats and main opposition Communist party, who united to uphold the ban, argue that if privatised, hospitals would focus on lucrative treatments, which would threaten the quality of general health care. The centre-right Civic Democrats reject that argument and say they may file a compliant to the Constitutional Court to have it reversed, should President Vaclav Klaus sign the bill into law.

Forbes magazine survey: Czech Republic has the world's 17th highest tax rate

The Czech Republic has the 17th highest taxes in the world, according to the US business magazine Forbes. Hungary ranked just a notch higher, at number 16 in the magazine's survey, while Poland is in the number 7 spot. Slovakia, which has introduced a flat tax of 19 percent, was ranked 32nd. France, Belgium and six other European Union member states made the magazine's Top 10 list.

Rent deregulation bill makes it through first reading in Parliament

A government bill to raise regulated rent has made it through the first reading in the lower house of the Czech Parliament. The bill, which from October 2006 would introduce an annual increase of 9.3 percent in regulated rent over a six-year period, will now be discussed at the parliamentary committee level. An estimated 750,000 apartments in the Czech Republic are rent controlled. According to Regional Development Ministry, if the bill comes into effect, landlords will take in an additional 36 billion crowns over the six-year time span.

Four companies remain in $1 billion Czech Army tender

Photo: www.army.cz

Four out of seven companies have advanced to the second round of the biggest tender for the Czech Army in history. The contract to supply the army with over 200 armoured personnel carriers (APCs) from 2007 to 2012 is worth close to one billion US dollars. Remaining in the tender are the United Kingdom's BAE Systems, Finland's Patria, Austria's Steyer-Daimler-Puch and Germany's Rheinmetall.

This year's agricultural production to be lowest in 15 years

The Czech Agricultural Association has announced that this year's gross agricultural output will be the lowest in the last 15 years. The association estimates the output at 67 billion crowns (2.8 billion dollars) down 10 billion crowns from last year. The fall has been mainly attributed to shrinking animal production. The Agricultural Association said that the Czech Republic was no longer self-sufficient in the production of pork meat, and beef production will soon follow.