Czech government partially lifts hard liquor prohibition

As far as the rest of the alcohol is concerned, the documents testifying its origin will still be necessary, Necas said.

The measure will take effect by Health Minister Leos Heger's statement on Thursday, he added.

"The fact that the government passed the measure today does not mean that now everyone will storm pubs and start drinking everything that is at hand," Agriculture Minister Petr Bendl warned, adding that the risk of methanol poisoning on the Czech market would persist.

Open bottles with hard liquor will have to be disposed of. There is the exception of hard liquor whose owners will have to have them tested, Heger said.

When it comes to the stored bottles with liquor, the distributors will have to get the proof of the alcohol's origin within 60 days, or else, it will be disposed of, he added.

Heger said the state would return the collected consumption tax for the alcohol that had been demonstrably destroyed.

"The disposal will take place at special centres, which is yet to be specified," Necas said, adding that the refund worth hundreds of million crowns could be suggested.

However, as the restaurants will have to buy alcohol again, the state coffers are not supposed to lose the tax revenues.

Spirits tainted with methanol have killed 26 victims in the Czech Republic this month. Over three dozen people are treated in hospital with poisoning symptoms, some of whom are in a critical state.

In reaction to the series of accidents, the government first banned hard liquor sales in kiosks and street stalls and later it extended the ban on any serving and sales of spirits containing more than 20 percent of alcohol.

($1 = 19.452 crowns)

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz