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☆ Czech government will try to meet 2023 budget deficit target, PM says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

PRAGUE, June 4 (Reuters) - The Czech government will try to meet its 2023 budget deficit target of 295 billion crowns ($13.4 billion) although the gap almost expanded to that level already in May, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Sunday. The central state budget deficit reached 271.4 billion crowns in January-May, its highest level ever for that period, hit by higher pension payments, spending on energy price subsidies and growing debt servicing costs. "It has not been evolving well, but I still cannot say that we will not meet (the deficit target)," Fiala said in a live debate on CNNPrima News TV station. Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura said on Thursday that his ministry will next week propose savings worth at least 20 billion crowns in this year's budget to stem the swelling deficit. ($1 = 22.0100 Czech crowns)Reporting by Robert Muller; Editing by Emelia Sithole-MatariseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Petr Fiala, Fiala, Zbynek Stanjura, Robert Muller, Emelia Sithole Organizations: CNNPrima News, European Union, Finance, Thomson Locations: PRAGUE, Czech

☆ Lithuania may tax windfall bank profits, boost defence spending
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Andrius Sytas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Czech Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura speaks with Lithuania's Finance Minister Gintare Skaiste at the European Union finance ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, July 12, 2022. "This is a critical situation, we are in an environment of high rates, so unexpected profits are appearing," central bank Governor Gediminas Simkus told a news conference. "The war in Ukraine and countries' reactions to it led to the high liquidity and high rates. The invasion also leads to more defence spending, so if we tax the windfall, the income would be used for defence", Skaiste told reporters. The neighbour of Russia had so far budgeted 2023 defence spending at 1.8 billion euros ($1.9 billion), or 2.52% of its gross domestic product.

☆ Putin's old EU ally Orban is once again aggravating Brussels with knockbacks
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Silvia Amaro | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Hungary Prime Minister Orban, often seen as a scourge to EU politics with once-warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, took to Twitter on Tuesday. Some EU officials believe Budapest's vote was an attempt to force through its own EU funding. On top of the additional funding for Ukraine, Hungary is also preventing the approval of new tax rules across the EU. Just before the Kremlin began its invasion of Ukraine, Orban said at a joint press conference with Putin how they had worked closely together for the last 13 years. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in November he had just received 2.5 billion euros from the EU.

At an EU economics and finance ministers' meeting in Brussels, Hungarian minister Mihaly Varga confirmed his government's opposition to supporting Ukraine with the loan. Hungary has said it would not take part in joint EU borrowing for Ukraine, though Budapest has said it would provide bilateral assistance. But this is not how Hungary's decision to block the EU loan has been received by all. Locked in a tug-of-war with Hungary, the ministers decided to take off their agenda on Tuesday any decision about 7.5 billion euros in EU funds earmarked for Hungary, according to EU officials. International watchdogs say he has channelled EU funds to his inner circle over the years, entrenching himself in power.

☆ Banks in EU face tougher rules on using cloud computing giants
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Regulators worry about the speed and scale at which banks, insurers and investment firms are moving critical functions and market operations onto a handful of cloud platforms. A glitch at one cloud company could potentially bring down services across many financial firms, regulators have said. "Thanks to the harmonised legal requirements which we adopted today, our financial sector will be better able to continue to function at all times," Stanjura said. The requirements will apply to financial firms and "critical" third parties supplying cloud based services. "If a large-scale attack on the European financial sector is launched, we will be prepared for it," Stanjura said.

☆ Czech proposed power revenue cap to bring much higher revenue than expected, minister says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The Industry Ministry has proposed caps ranging from 70 euros per megawatt/hour of electricity made at nuclear power plants to 230 euros for power made at some lignite plants. "As proposed, it will bring much higher revenue than 15 billion," Stanjura told reporters. Overall, he said the ministry's forecast of raising 100 billion crowns from the windfall tax and the revenue caps next year was conservative and final takings may be higher, he said. The company expected to be most affected by the revenue caps and the windfall tax is the majority state-owned electricity producer CEZ (CEZP.PR). The Czech revenue cap proposal goes beyond the EU agreement by suggesting validity from Dec. 1 this year until the end of 2023, while the EU agreement only runs until June 30, 2023.

☆ EU backs watering down of final Basel bank capital rules
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - European Union member states have backed a temporary watering down and two-year delay to 2025 for the final leg of the globally agreed Basel III bank capital rules, the Czech EU presidency said on Tuesday. EU states will now negotiate a final deal with the European Parliament in early 2023. Most of the Basel III rules, a set of tougher capital rules for banks after the global financial crisis more than a decade ago, have already been implemented. EU ministers backed a two-year delay to the start date for rolling out the final rules, pushing it back to January, 2025. Smaller banks would benefit from simpler disclosure, and EU states pushed back against attempts at stricter EU harmonisation in checking whether top bank staff are 'fit and proper'.

☆ Prague bourse warns govt about rattling markets the way UK did
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PRAGUE, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Czech politicians should avoid rattling markets the way Britain has recently, as the country discusses plans for a windfall tax, the Prague Stock Exchange's chief said on Friday, after comments from ruling party members this week sent stocks tumbling. The Czech government has been discussing imposing a windfall tax on excessive profits in the energy and banking sectors since the summer, which has weighed on markets. "Trust is the fundamental value that every capital market aims for in its investors," Prague Stock Exchange chairman Petr Koblic wrote in a commentary in financial daily Hospodarske Noviny. The Czech government is putting a windfall tax in place to fund measures such as a cap on electricity prices, aimed at easing the impact of Europe's energy crisis on its citizens. Czech Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura said late on Wednesday the government was still "leaning" towards applying it from 2023.

Czech markets were jolted on Wednesday on news the government could widen its proposed tax on excessive profits to include 2022 earnings, earlier than existing plans applying only to 2023-2025. Stanjura told reporters after the government met that the cabinet still leaned towards putting the windfall tax in place for 2023, calming markets somewhat. A government source had earlier said legal implications for the tax were still being considered. The windfall tax should be imposed on banks with more than 6 billion crowns ($240 million) of net interest income in 2021. A windfall tax would help cover protective measures such as a cap on electricity prices.

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