HN: New stamps to delay end of prohibition by weeks

Prague, Sept 25 (CTK) - New stamps that the health minister wants to guarantee the quality of spirits sold after the recent scandal involving poisonous illegally-produced liquors may delay the end of prohibition in the Czech Republic by many days or even weeks, daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes Tuesday.

The technical introduction of the stamps cannot be quick even if the state printed them as quickly as possible, HN writes, citing liquor producers who lose tens of millions of crowns a day due to the prohibition.

After being printed, the stamps must be distributed to producers, who will have to withdraw their products from the market, apply the stamps and redistribute the products to shops. This may take up to weeks, the producers say.

The Health Ministry banned the sale of spirits containing more than 20 percent of alcohol across the country on September 14 in reaction to a high number of methanol poisoning cases caused by the consumption of bootleg spirits.

Twenty-five people have died in the past fortnight and others stay in hospitals, mainly in Moravia, after consuming the poisonous drinks.

The police on Monday said they have uncovered the network of illegal liquor producers and distributors, including the two main suspects who wilfully made a poisonous mixture and sent it into circulation via a distributor. Both worked in companies using methanol in the production of mixtures for car windscreen washers.

The police said up to 15,000 litres of dangerous alcohol may be on the Czech market, adding that the police may not find all of it and advised people to be cautious.

Health Minister Leos Heger (TOP 09) has suggested that only the sale of checked liquors with the new stamps be permitted. If the cabinet approves the plan on Wednesday, Heger is ready to soften the prohibition rules, he said.

The big producers, nevertheless, say that the safety of their products is guaranteed in view of the present system binding producers to prove the origin of the liquor's components anytime on request, HN writes.

They say it would be enough if the state checked the relevant documents related to the products deposited in storage facilities, without forcing producers to withdraw the goods from shops, re-stamp and redistribute them, HN writes.

Producers estimate their daily losses connected with the prohibition at 15 million crowns, pubs and hotels lose more than 40 million crowns a day and the loss of big retail chains and smaller alcohol sellers is even higher, HN writes.

The state, on its part, loses 25 million crowns a day in excise tax and VAT, the paper adds.

A number of producers have suspended or reduced their operation. The same applies to the sellers. The big chains partly compensate the gap by selling spirits with a lower alcohol content. Smaller sellers, however, have nothing to sell.

"We've in fact lost our job," the paper quotes Bohumil Hurka, owner of a shop specialising in the sale of brand spirits with a high content of alcohol, as saying.

"We offered, for example, 15-year-old whiskey that we imported four years ago. How can anyone suppose it to contain methanol from the Czech fraudsters?" Hurka asks.

Nevertheless, neither producers nor sellers are considering applying for a compensation from the state, the paper writes.

Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek's (TOP 09) suggestion on Monday that the state may postpone the tax payment deadline for alcohol producers and sellers is an accommodating gesture that might soften the prohibition's impact on companies that have nothing to do with the black market and that have lost millions of crowns due to fraudsters, HN writes.