PM supports regulation of bearer shares

Prague, Feb 17 (CTK) - Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS) supports the government bill to regulate bearer shares on which the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament, will be deciding on Tuesday, Necas said in a TV debate Sunday.

ODS MP Pavel Suchanek, chairman of the Chamber of Deputies budget committee, is trying to change the government bill. He wants to preserve bearer shares that have already been issued.

Suchanek's proposal is not "politically far-sighted," Necas said in the Questions of Vaclav Moravec discussion programme on public Czech Television. He, however, admitted he did not know it in detail.

The opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) are willing to support the government bill.

Under the government bill the firms would be obliged to enter their bearer shares into a central depository or deposit them as bearer shares in paper form in a bank. If they did not do so, the bearer shares would be changed into registered shares.

Its supporters consider it an important step in the fight against corruption in the Czech Republic.

Primarily the property structure of the firms that receive public procurement and subsidies and are operating in regulated branches must be revealed, Necas stressed.

He added that Suchanek's proposal would meet this requirement only partially, in the case of public procurement.

The government found inspiration for the legislation in the neighbouring Austria, Necas noted.

CSSD chairman Bohuslav Sobotka said the CSSD would vote for all bills to make companies' owners as much transparent as possible. He called the government bill to regulate bearer shares "a change for the better."

The Civic Democrats will debate their stance on the regulation of bearer shares at a meeting of the ODS deputy group on Tuesday afternoon.

It will support the government bill if no other agreement is reached at the debate, ODS deputy group head Marek Benda said.