Klaus signs four finance reform-related bills

The president's spokesman Petr Hajek has revealed that Czech president Vaclav Klaus has signed four bills, out of a total of eleven, related to the launching of the government's finance reforms. Three of the four bills signed Tuesday will provide amendments to existing laws on health insurance, social security, and a tax on the transfer of real estate, while the fourth will freeze wages for elected officials over a three-year period. The government is hoping, for example, that its amendment to social security will help cut down on social security fraud while stiffening conditions for financial support, motivating the unemployed to search more actively for work. Meanwhile, the real estate tax amendment shall make the transfer of real estate cheaper as of July 2004, cutting the current tax from 5 to just 3 percent.