New tax stamps become available

In related news, alcohol producers who applied several days ago for new tax stamps were able to get them up as of Wednesday morning at customs offices. The spokeswoman for the Customs Administration of the Czech Republic, Martina Kaňková, said that as of Tuesday evening the bureau had received requests for 28 million stamps. The new stamps are printed red and feature the Czech word for ‘new’ (nový) to clearly differentiate newly-produced bottles of hard liquor from bottles produced ahead of the methanol crisis. Twenty-six people in the country have died as a result of drinking methanol-laced alcohol allegedly produced by two main suspects who are in custody. Scores of others along the distribution chain were also charged by police.