Expert: Bureaucracy costs Czech small businesses billions each year

Small businesses in the Czech Republic lose 41 billion crowns annually due to excessive bureaucracy, according to Dominik Stroukal, member of the National Economic Council and economist at Metropolitan University Prague. Speaking at a press conference marking the second annual “Big Week of Small Businesses”, Stroukal pointed to poor digitalization as one of the main culprits behind the excessive red tape. Paperwork consumes nearly 70 million hours each year, time that could otherwise fuel growth and innovation, Stroukal said. The heaviest administrative burdens stem from employee management, waste reporting, and official statistics or inspections.