Czech firms to pay more for air pollution

The lower house of Czech parliament today passed a bill under which the fees that firms have to pay for air pollution will be going up until 2021.

The lower house originally agreed to cancel the fees completely within 10 years, but the upper house rejected it and returned the bill to the lower house in a modified version, similar to the original proposal prepared by Environment Minister Tomas Chalupa (Civic Democrats, ODS).

Chalupa said the fees would motivate companies to introduce cleaner technologies and help improve air quality not only in the most polluted regions.

The bill is yet to be signed by President Vaclav Klaus.

The Czech Confederation of Industry and the Czech Association of Chemical Industry oppose the version approved today.

Companies that should pay fees lower than 50,000 crowns a year would be exempted from the payment.

Chalupa said currently about 4300 firms annually pay 430 million crowns altogether. The 50,000-crown limit would free most of them of this duty, yet the total sum would decrease maximally by 8 percent.

Critics of the set limit say not only small businesses would be relieved of the burden, but also the Prunerov coal-fired power plant or plants of the Arcelor Mittal steelworks, known as one of the biggest polluters in the country.