Members of the Czech Management Association and representatives of Czech companies have expressed the opinion that there has been insufficient communication on the part of the government in preparing the package, and that its focus was working against the economic growth of the Czech Republic.
The only positive may be that if the state starts to save, it may have an impact on the labour market and reduce the pressure on increasing wages and salaries in private companies.
If the consolidation package has any other positives, it is perhaps only the effort to quell the national debt. It has assumed enormous proportions, and the consequences will be painful if nothing is done about it. However, it is not clever that the government is thinking mainly about how to raise revenue for the state. Yet, cutting expenditures is still insufficient. The state is failing as a proper economist. Savings should be even more drastic regarding the costs of running the state and the civil service. A more extensive reduction in the number of civil servants would have a positive effect on the labour market that has been overheated on a long-term basis. The will to take substantial steps to do so is insufficient.
They also see a problem in the fact that the consolidation package seeks to tax corporations, the country’s wealth generators, more. However, small and medium-sized Czech-owned companies, in particular, have already suffered for the Covid crisis and high energy prices.
However, the government should realise that the better off domestic small and medium-sized enterprises are, the better off the country will be. What is being forgotten is the long-term perspective, which must grow out of domestic investment, for example, money backed by value.
And increasing costs to companies, just to replenish the state purse, is the opposite of what is needed.
Olga Girstlová, President of the Czech Management Association
