Archive of articles - April 2012, page 14
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Government set to hike taxes
THE RULING Smer party has not turned to euphemisms to describe how it will tackle public finances. The language is instead straightforward: the new government wants to scrap the flat tax by introducing heavier tax rates for the rich and for highly profitable businesses, to tax luxury products and services, and may also apply a higher levy on banks.
Kroj
IF YOU thought a kroj was only good for doing an odzemok or jumping over a vatra, it turns out you were wrong. The folk costume has new uses reaching far beyond traditional dances or bonfire escapades. For the first time, a new MP has worn one to swear his parliamentary oath. Slovakia is no Scotland or Saudi Arabia, so Igor Hraško’s decision to put on anything other than a conventional suit did attract attention. And it serves as a good symbol. Firstly, it shows what the opposition will be up to for the next four years. Divided, lacking a clear agenda, and facing a strong Smer, it will have a hard time reaching out to voters. So here come publicity stunts such as this one.
Modern Bratislava (video included)
After Slovakia adopted a series of economic reforms during the first decade of this century, Bratislava has become one of the fastest growing regions in Europe and a construction boom has started all over the city. Developments have brought new life and spirit to many locations and created new living, business, shopping and leisure zones, popular among locals and tourists alike.Two shopping centres close to the city centre - Eurovea and Aupark - are typical of these new developments. They both combine shops, bars and restaurants with entertainment facilities in a pleasant indoor and outdoor environment.
New parliament will hold its first session on April 4
Both outgoing Prime Minister Iveta Radičová and President Ivan Gašparovič will attend the first session of the newly-elected parliament on April 4 and at about noon Gašparovič will appoint the incoming cabinet of Robert Fico whose party won a landslide victory in the March 10 elections, the SITA newswire reported. It is not known if Radičová or Gašparovič will deliver speeches to parliament according to both officials’ press spokespersons.
Gašparovič offers official farewell to Prime Minister Radičová
President Ivan Gašparovič offered an official farewell to Prime Minister Iveta Radičová from the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) on April 2 as her entire government is set to resign on April 4, the TASR newswire reported. Gašparovič's spokesman, Marek Trubač, told TASR that the president received Radičová in the Presidential Palace and thanked her for her work as the head of the government. Gašparovič, who had defeated Radičová in a run-off election for president in 2009, added that their level of cooperation had been appropriate. The president presented Radičová with a bouquet of flowers and wished her all the best in her personal life, Trubač said. In late 2011 Radičová announced that she would leave politics as well as her political party after the new government was formed following the March 10 parliamentary election. The outgoing prime minister will take the post of lecturer at St. Anthony's College in Great Britain that specialises in international relations, economics, political science, history and anthropology. Radičová pursued post-doctoral studies at Oxford University in 1990.
Slovakia's budget deficit ends 2011 at 4.8 percent of GDP
Slovakia posted a government deficit of 4.8 percent of GDP in 2011 and its gross public debt reached 43.3 percent of gross domestic product according to preliminary figures released by the Statistics Office and the Finance Ministry in using the methodology of the European System of National and Regional Accounts (ESA 95) that have now been sent to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency, the TASR newswire reported. Eurostat will now double check the data and will release official figures on public finances in all EU member countries on April 23. The Finance Ministry said the country’s public finances were subject to two main one-off influences last year: debts from state-run railway companies and hospitals of €633 million from 2008-2010 that had a negative impact equivalent to 0.8 percent of GDP. A VAT payment of €174 million by GRANVIA construction company on construction of the R1 expressway had a favourable impact of 0.2 percent of GDP. The ministry noted that the budget deficit was cut from 7.7 percent of GDP in 2010 to last year's 4.8 percent. "If it wasn't for the one-off influences referred to previously, the drop in the deficit would be from 8.13 percent of GDP in 2010 to 4.15 percent the following year," TASR wrote in quoting the ministry.
Fico reportedly will select a non-partisan economy minister
Ján Valko, the former head of JAVYS, Slovakia’s nuclear decommissioning company, will not become the country’s new economy minister as was rumoured with Robert Fico, the chirman of Smer party and the future prime minister, reportedly offering the post to Tomáš Malatinský, the head of the Association of Employers' Unions and Associations, the Sme daily reported.
Culture Ministry tells the National Gallery to start a €30 million reconstruction
The Culture Ministry instructed the Slovak National Gallery (SNG) on March 30, shortly before the leadership change at the ministry, to launch renovation work on its building at an estimated total cost of €30 million over a span of three years, the TASR newswire reported. "After more than ten years of waiting there's a realistic opportunity at last for Bratislava to have a renovated SNG building following the revamp of the Reduta building," said outgoing Culture Minister Daniel Krajcer from Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party. Krajcer said that controversy over SNG's reportedly overpriced web site was one of the reasons for delays in the gallery’s reconstruction work. "The real cost [for the website] was just over €7,000, not €25,000 as paid out by SNG before I took up the post [of culture minister]. The general director [Alexandra Kusa] brought specific people to account, and SNG will have to return €17,000 to the budget of the Culture Ministry," said Krajcer.
ARDAL sells 364-day T-bills worth €485 million
Slovakia’s Debt and Liquidity Management Agency (ARDAL) accepted bids worth €485 million in total, including €235 million from non-residents, at an April 2 auction of 364-day treasury bills, the TASR newswire was told by Juraj Pekár from ARDAL. Overall demand at the auction was over €1 billion, including €383 billion from foreign investors. The minimum interest rate was 0.9496 percent per annum and the average rate was 1.0860 percent and the maximum bid was 2.7967 percent. The T-bills will be issued on April 4, 2012 and will mature on April 3, 2013.
Tax offices to begin using old information system
Slovakia's tax offices will start to its previous IS RDS information system developed by Novitech company after an expert team made this recommendation following a series of tests on the new KONS information system that was supposed to replace the old system, the Finance Ministry’s spokesperson, Martin Jaroš, told the TASR newswire.
Slovakia’s budget deficit rises to €1.155 billion at end of March
Slovakia’s budget deficit rose from €846 million at the end of February to €1.155 billion at the end of March, compared to the €655 million recorded as of March 2011, according to preliminary figures released by the Finance Ministry on April 2, as reported by the TASR newswire. Revenues amounted to €2.468 billion at the end of last month, 10.3 percent lower on an annual basis and 18.1 percent of the revenue plan for the whole year that is budgeted at €13.625 billion. State expenditures for the first three months of 2012 stood at €3.263 billion, an increase of 6.3 percent year-on-year and 20.9 percent of the planned expenditures of €17.3 billion for 2012. A deficit of €3.675 billion is projected for the full year, or 4.6 percent of GDP, TASR wrote. The lower revenues for the first quarter are due to the fact that Slovakia's budget was without €251 million from the EU that is expected to flow to the country later and will have no impact on the full-year deficit according to the Finance Ministry.
Chairs of the parliamentary committees also starting to take shape; KDH and SaS spar
Outgoing Economy Minister Juraj Miškov from Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party has withdrawn his candidacy for the post of chair of parliament’s economy and budget committee in favour of the Christian Democratic Movement (KDH), explaining that he does not want to help future Prime Minister Robert Fico portray the opposition as a quarrelsome bunch, the TASR newswire reported.
Nurses’ Chamber says salary increase for nurses is accompanied by chaos
Implementation of the law on minimum salaries for nurses and midwives is accompanied with chaos, said Mária Lévyová, the chair of the Chamber of Nurses, while adding that it is now too early to say who is violating the new law that came into effect on April 1 and who is not, the SITA newswire reported.
Most ministers chosen but economy minister not yet named
Future Prime Minister Robert Fico from Smer party has confirmed a list of nominees for most posts in the forthcoming government and at least three members of the 10-member cabinet will be non-partisan figures, the TASR newswire reported.
Results of post-Fukushima stress tests
THE DISASTER at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, after multiple meltdowns in the aftermath of an earthquake and a tsunami a year ago, spurred extensive testing of nuclear power plants across Europe, including those in Slovakia. The country’s four operating nuclear reactors as well as two reactors under construction underwent stress tests last year as ordered by Slovakia’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ÚJD) which then prepared and submitted a final national report to the European Commission by the deadline of December 31.
Moody’s lowers outlook for banks
MOODY’S Investors Service changed its outlook for Slovakia’s banking system from stable to negative, citing weaker economic growth and quality of assets in the banking sector, in its most recent rating released on March 27.
American songstress teams with Slovak band
SLOVAK musicians do not have an opportunity very often to team up with US artists, particularly with musicians of a different genre. But US singer and songwriter Jess Klein, who has released a new album titled Behind a Veil, will soon play three concerts in western Slovakia joined by a local band, Korben Dallas. They will perform together at Kafe Scherz in Bratislava, at Klub Lúč in Trenčín and at Na kus reči in Levice.
Modra's Jewish history
THE TOWN of Modra in the Small Carpathians looked like this in the 1920s.
Ways to minimise plagiarism
THE VALUE of an academic degree depends not only on the quality of knowledge students acquire but also on how they achieve their degree and every institution of higher education needs to guarantee that its students and faculty comply with scholastic honesty rules. Because not all educational institutions in Slovakia pay the same degree of attention to the issue of scholastic honesty, the Ministry of Education is attempting to achieve a certain level of standardisation by creating a central register of students’ theses and dissertations, known by the acronym CRTD.
Countrywide Events
Western SLOVAKIA
- The hidden costs of Slovakia’s complicated tax system
- Neo-Nazi gang in Bratislava plotted armed attack and called their leader ‘Mr Führer’, court documents reveal
- Slovakia’s secret weapon is living abroad
- Bratislava Region simplifies transport zones, raises fares
- Irish outlet hails Slovak spa town as top European holiday spot
- News digest: Parties push for constitutional changes as President urges focus on real issues Photo
- Iconic Slovenský Raj chairlift shuts down a week after opening Photo
- After years of straddling two worlds, this American is now reconnecting with his Slovak roots
- Last Week: Central bank governor found guilty, but Fico accuses the judge
- Irish outlet hails Slovak spa town as top European holiday spot
- Slovakia’s secret weapon is living abroad
- After years of straddling two worlds, this American is now reconnecting with his Slovak roots
- Neo-Nazi gang in Bratislava plotted armed attack and called their leader ‘Mr Führer’, court documents reveal
- Slovak brewers win hearts in Porto with beer inspired by a childhood favourite
- Employers outline €6.5 billion in spending cuts, but Fico fires back
- News digest: Parties push for constitutional changes as President urges focus on real issues Photo
- Irish outlet hails Slovak spa town as top European holiday spot
- After years of straddling two worlds, this American is now reconnecting with his Slovak roots
- Last Week: Central bank governor found guilty, but Fico accuses the judge
- Why a British teacher chose Slovakia as home Audio
- Slovakia’s secret weapon is living abroad
- The law changed. Our family papers were ready. Now my kids are Slovak citizens
- A bus now runs through it: Slovakia and Poland’s Tatras finally connect
- Where can vegetarians and gluten-free diners eat out in Bratislava?
- After years of straddling two worlds, this American is now reconnecting with his Slovak roots
- Irish outlet hails Slovak spa town as top European holiday spot
- Why a British teacher chose Slovakia as home Audio
- Slovakia’s secret weapon is living abroad
- The law changed. Our family papers were ready. Now my kids are Slovak citizens
- Where can vegetarians and gluten-free diners eat out in Bratislava?
- Bratislava unveils its first 3D-printed bus stop Photo
- Slovak physicist: I do not employ doctoral students; I make them go abroad. I expect them to push us forward
- Can Slovakia’s new public broadcaster chief stay independent?
- Iconic Slovenský Raj chairlift shuts down a week after opening Photo
- News digest: Parties push for constitutional changes as President urges focus on real issues Photo
- Bratislava Region simplifies transport zones, raises fares
- Neo-Nazi gang in Bratislava plotted armed attack and called their leader ‘Mr Führer’, court documents reveal
- The hidden costs of Slovakia’s complicated tax system
- Last Week: Central bank governor found guilty, but Fico accuses the judge
- News digest: Ex-judge Harabin cleared of charges over pro-Russian war comments More articles ›
