News

There was a marked rise in purchases of new cars in the Czech Republic in the first two months of 2010, according to figures released by the Car Importers Association. The overall number of car sales increased by 17 percent compared to the same period in 2009, with companies buying 59 percent more vehicles. Interest in company cars has risen this year after a change to the law on VAT. The biggest seller in January and February was Škoda, followed by Volkswagen and Ford.

Czech Railways hopes to sell at least 100,000 tickets through the Lidl chain of supermarkets this year, a representative of the former told reporters on Wednesday. The system was first introduced last year, with sales during trials in October and in the Christmas period amounting to 28,000. Prague and Brno branches of Lidl are selling train tickets between the two cities at a reduced price. Czech Railways says they are planning to also sell cheaper tickets on other routes through the Lidl chain.

Former Czech soccer international Luboš Kubík has been hired as an assistant coach to the USA, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday. Kubík, who will be going to the World Cup in South Africa with the US this year, played for Czechoslovakia against the Americans at the 1990 World Cup; he was also part of the Czech squad that reached the final of the 1996 European championship. The defensive midfielder played in the US league for Chicago Fire and Dallas Burn after stints at Fiorentina, Metz and Nuremberg.

The Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, on Tuesday afternoon cancelled the higher taxation of employee benefits, giving in to the demands of transport union leaders that had threatened to go on a nation-wide strike to take place on Thursday. Earlier on Tuesday, Parliament deputies and union leaders discussed a possible amendment to the act on value added tax that would cancel higher taxation of employee benefits. The talks broke up after Civic Democrat deputies, who have a majority in the Senate, confirmed their opposition to the proposed change and said they would block any proposals which would increase the country’s already steep budget deficit. But the prime minister decided to push through a cancellation of the higher taxation, stating he wanted to make sure the country would not be in upheaval before the upcoming general elections in May. It is still possible, however, that the amendment will not pass before the Senate and the union leaders have not yet cancelled Thursday’s nationwide transport strike.