EXPLAINED: Czech president signs consolidation package – what’s next?

VAT rates will change – from three brackets to two
Food will mainly be taxed at the lower 12 percent rate
Some services and draft beer will be subject to the higher 21-percent VAT rate
VAT for public transport, magazines, some medicinal drugs, and tickets for culture and sports events will rise from 10 percent to the new 12 percent bracket
The corporate income tax rate will rise from 19 percent to 21 percent
Property taxes will rise by an average of 1.8 times
There will be a staged increase in consumption tax hikes on alcohol (10 percent over the next two years, and an added 5 percent in the following year)
Insurance payments for self-employed people will increase in the next three years

The package reintroduces a 0.6 percent employee health insurance levy on income
Tax exemptions like discounts for school fees and students will go
There will be limits on tax exemption for non-working spouse/partner to those caring for a child under three years of age
The threshold to pay the highest rate of income tax (23 percent) will decrease from a monthly income of CZK 161,000 to CZK 121,000
The package reduces maximum state support for building savings from CZK 2,000 to CZK 1,000
The annual highway toll sticker price will rise from CZK 1,500 to CZK 2,300, starting March 1
Companies will be legally allowed to keep their accounts in a foreign currency (such as euros or dollars)

Political commentator for Seznam Zprávy Martin Čaban says that the consolidation package will not do much to rehabilitate the state's public finances. Rather, it will simply mean that they will not deteriorate as sharply as before.
Political analyst Jiří Pehe writes in iRozhlas that the parliamentary debate between the government and opposition was a “battle of monologues,” with the opposition criticizing the reform, but offering no real solutions or alternatives to cutting the deficit.
Economic editor of Deník N Jan Úšela says that the reform “hurts everyone a little, but no one fatally.”
Editor-in-chief of the newspaper Právo Petr Šabata writes in iRozhlas that the consolidation package “will hit the socially weak very hard,” costing low-income households “thousands of crowns” every month.