FINE

The Finance Ministry canceled a 2.4 billion Kč ($111.3 million) fine on steel producer Mittal Steel Ostrava, the news server iDnes reported Jan. 26. The fine was levied because the tax office ruled that Mittal broke the law by charging exorbitant prices to its Vysoké pece Ostrava unit, thus generating unfair profits. The fine was the highest ever imposed in the Czech Republic. The Finance Ministry didn’t say why the fine was lifted.

Czechs still have 4.3 billion Kč in anonymous deposit books with Česká spořitelna, a bank spokeswoman told the Czech News Agency Jan. 28. The accounts, which are owned by whoever happens to be holding the official deposit book, have to disappear by 2013 thanks to a law aimed at reducing money laundering. No interest has been paid on those accounts since 2003.

Low-cost airlines are taking a bigger share of the increasing traffic at Prague’s Ruzyně Airport. Budget airlines accounted for one-fifth of the 11.5 million passengers who passed through the airport last year, the daily Právo reported Jan. 25. Carrier easyJet alone transported nearly 814,000 last year. SkyEurope came in second, with nearly 300,000 passengers.

The Czech Republic will see some 6.7 million foreign tourists this year, up 3 percent against 2006, according to projections by the CzechTourism agency and travel agency associations. An increasing number of visitors will see regions outside of Prague, and the number of Russian tourists will increase the fastest this year. Spending by foreign tourists should hit 112 billion Kč.

The anti-corruption police are investigating Pavel Kavánek, current general director and board chairman at ČSOB, in connection with the transfer of IPB bank several years ago, the daily Mladá fronta Dnes reported Jan. 30. Kavánek negotiated the state takeover of the failing IPB. According to the complaint, Kavánek cheated the state by agreeing on the conditions of the takeover with ČSOB beforehand.

Czech employees lag behind the rest of the European Union in terms of their ability to use computers and browse the Internet, according to a survey conducted for U.S. software giant Microsoft the daily Hospodářské noviny reported Jan. 30. Czechs ranked below the EU average in most categories of the survey, the report says. Czechs rank lower than staff in Romania, for instance, which joined the EU at the beginning of January.

The number of cars on Czech roads grew by almost 150,000 in 2006 to reach some 4.1 million, the Association of Automotive Industries said Jan. 29. The average age of Czech cars remained steady, at nearly 14 years. The share of new cars reached 3.13 percent in 2006, against 10 percent to 12 percent throughout the EU.