Business News

In business news this week: electricity prices for households will go down in 2010; banks come to the rescue of the troubled lottery giant Sazka; DHL will move its IT data centre to Prague; Prague’s Ruzyně airport launches self check-in kiosks; and : paying taxes in Czech Republic is more difficult than in most of the EU.

Electricity prices for households to drop in 2010

Photo: Archive of Radio Prague

We begin with some mildly good news for Czech households as electricity prices are set to go down next year. The good news is that according to government figures, electricity prices will drop by as much as 15 percent in 2010 due to an overall drop in energy prices. The bad news is that because of the higher transportation costs, soaring environmental taxes, as well as higher taxes imposed by the government, the overall drop in electricity prices for households will decrease by only 2.8 percent.

Banks come to lottery giant Sazka’s rescue

Several banks, including Belgium’s Fortis Bank and the Czech banks Raiffeisen, Česká spořitelna and Komerční banka have come to the help of the troubled Czech lottery giant, Sazka. They have created a consortium and put forward a credit contract that should help Sazka to pay off its current credit to the banks, the daily Hospodářské noviny reported on Friday. Sazka owes the banks around two billion crowns, or nearly 113 million US dollars. If Sazka agrees to replace the individual loans with a joint credit contract, the banks will extend payment terms and lower instalments. Sazka’s management has not yet commented on the plan.

DHL to move its IT data centre to Prague

The mail company DHL is going to move its European headquarters from Brussels to Germany and the Czech Republic, the AP news agency reported on Thursday. While the German-owned firm will move its head office to Bonn or Leipzig airport, its IT data centre will relocate to Prague. The move will see some 788 jobs cut in Belgium but the company said its Belgian workers would be offered positions at the new locations. The relocation will take around two years.

Prague’s Ruzyně airport launches self check-in kiosks

Photo: CTK

Passengers at Prague’s Ruzyně airport will not have to wait in lines to check in as the airport launched on Thursday 25 self check-in kiosks. Five airlines, including the Czech national carrier ČSA, Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, FinnAir and Iberia, are offering the new service. Passengers with tickets will get boarding passes from the kiosks as well as tags for their check-in baggage which they will leave at a special desk. The head of the Airport and of Czech Airlines, Miroslav Dvořák, said the self-check in service is now available to a majority of travellers at the airport.

Study: paying taxes in Czech Republic more difficult than in most of EU

Paying corporate taxes in the Czech Republic is more difficult than in most other EU member states, according to the Paying Taxes 2010 report by the World Bank and Price Waterhouse Coopers released on Tuesday. The country ranked 121st in the world, and 26th in the European Union, only trailed by Bulgaria. It takes 613 hours to file tax returns, while the EU average is just 232. The most difficult part of the process is filing social security payments for employees, the study noted, adding that Czech tax legislation is overly complicated. And the situation is not going to improve soon – a new tax code, which was approved this year, will only come into effect in 2011.

Court suspends plans to build Brno – Vienna motorway

The Czech Supreme Administrative Court suspended on Wednesday a development plan to build a motorway connecting the city of Brno, south Moravia, with the Austrian capital. The court cancelled the region’s development plan according to which the motorway should be built via the town of Mikulov, which was approved by the South Moravian region. The judges said it was passed under obsolete environmental legislation. While Austria is planning to finish its part of the motorway by 2013, it’s now not clear when and where the road on the Czech side will be completed.