The Finance Ministry intends to impose an excise tax on coal, natural gas and electricity as of 2006 or 2007. These so-called environmental taxes are obligatory in the European Union, which the Czech Republic is scheduled to join next year, though the government has applied for a transition period to implement the taxes, to 2006 (CTK).
While negative, the magnitude of the impact on CEZ depends on the effective timing, and especially on the size of the tax. Recall, that more than 50% of CEZ's output is generated in coal power-plants, and CEZ would therefore be taxed both on the input and on the output side.
Jiří Soustružník