Spirits producers won't ask for compensations for now

Prague, Sept 24 (CTK) - The Union of Spirits Producers and Importers (UVDL) will at the time being not be dealing with the issue of financial losses and their compensation in connection with the methanol affair, the UVDL said in a press release Monday.

The union pointed out that the current situation is the result of activities on the black market. Due to the methanol affair, ban on exports of spirits from the Czech Republic is in force for the fourth day now.

Prime Minister Petr Necas and Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek have agreed that compensation of losses of producers and distributors is not being considered.

However, the Finance Ministry is ready to adjust advanced tax payments or defer instalments for liquor producers harmed by the current partial prohibition declared in reaction to methanol poisoning cases.

The UVDL has proposed that no products of brands in which increased methanol level has been identified or other offences against the existing legislation defining legal alcohol have been found be returned to sale.

"We at the same time propose that new stamps be provided only to companies which can document the way of the spirits from the level of materials to the first client," Pavel Dvoracek, CEO and board chairman of liqueur maker Rudolf Jelinek, added.

Market stabilisation and consumer confidence renewal in the Czech Republic and abroad are conditioned by lifting of the ban on sale of products whose safety can be proven. UVDL products meet this condition, he stated.

In a long-term horizon, the UVDL demands that holding an unregistered distillation equipment and handling illegal alcohol be qualified as a criminal act again. It also wants places selling alcoholic beverages to be regulated and the largest containers for selling alcohol to clients be of 3 litres at most, not 6 litres as is the case now.

The UVDL represents over 81 percent of the value of the Czech spirits' market. Its members are Aromka Brno, Bohemia Sekt, Brown-Forman, Fruko-Schulz, Global Spirits, Granette & Starorezna Distilleries, Jan Becher Karlovarska Becherovka, Milan Metelka, Remy Cointreau, Rudolf Jelinek, St. Nicolaus trade CZ and Stock Plzen.