Prague – Damage to state property from the floods that hit the Czech Republic the weekend before last will exceed 30 billion crowns. Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura (ODS) said this today in the Otázky Václav Moravec program on Czech television. According to him, the estimates, as they become more precise, go upwards. Only in the department of the Ministry of Agriculture, 15 billion will be spent on water management structures, and in the department of the Ministry of Transport, 10 billion crowns will be spent on state infrastructure, he added.
On Wednesday, the government approved an increase in this year’s state budget deficit by 30 billion to 282 billion crowns. The money is intended for the removal of damage after the floods, which mainly affected the Moravian-Silesian and Olomouc regions in mid-September. The Chamber will discuss the amendment in a state of legislative emergency on Tuesday, October 1. The chairwoman of the parliamentary club of the opposition movement ANO, Alena Schillerová, said today that she will propose to her club to support the state of legislative emergency when amending the state budget for this year. She did not want to predict how the club would react to the amendment. According to her, he will give himself a number of conditions.
According to Stanjura, after the crisis reserves of the municipal and regional budgets have been exhausted, local governments turn to the state budget. 200 million crowns have been paid out so far. According to him, help from the budget will also go to households and companies. On Wednesday, the government will deal with compensating the costs of companies whose employees could not go to work due to high water. “Something like kurzarbeit, but it’s a little different,” he pointed out. According to Stanjur’s background materials, it is about 80,000 jobs, it will be about a billion crowns. Applications will be accepted from October 1 to October 31, it may be extended, it will be the way of the labor offices.
The government will release an average of 40,000 crowns per household as the first immediate aid to households affected by floods. He sends the money to the municipalities, which decide on a specific amount for a specific household. For companies, the National Development Bank (NRB) will prepare two support programs in which small and medium-sized enterprises will be able to apply for guarantees for loans provided and for preferential loans.
The government will release 500 million crowns for the NRB guarantee program, so the bank will be able to provide entrepreneurs with guarantees for loans worth up to 3.5 billion crowns. NRB will also offer preferential loans to small and medium-sized companies in the range of 500,000 crowns to 100 million crowns, while the interest rates offered will be below the market level.
CR Economy Government House of Representatives 2024 Stanjura budget floods
Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
