Project HESO - 4th Quarter October - December 2004

4th Quarter OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2004 RATING Quality Importance
Measures Ranked by Rating Values
(i.e. Contribution to the Economic and Social Development)		 [-300;300] [ -3; 3 ] %
1. 2005 State Budget (State Budget´s deficit of SKK 61.5bn, deficit in public finance - 3.4 per cent of GDP) 142,7 1,76 81,3
2. New Act on Bankruptcy and Restructuring, Act on Bankruptcy Trustees (Specifying partial terms for every operation within bankruptcy proceeding; strengthening the position of creditors; setting up the role of trustees; random selection of trustees) 102,1 2,00 51,1
3. Amendment to the Act on Administration of Taxes (E-communication with tax administrators even without guaranteed electronic signature; allowing reliefs and remission of penalties; making the list of tax debtors and list of subjects registered for VAT and excise duties open to public) 93,3 1,92 48,6
4. Reform of the Third Pillar of the Pension Scheme - Act on Supplementary Pension Savings (Supplementary pension insurance companies transformed into standard joint stock companies, which act on financial market; property of the company separated from citizens’ deposits; supervision of the Financial Market Authority), Amendment to the Income Tax Act (Extending tax allowances onto other savings, insurance and capital products of the financial market; decreasing the ceiling amount, which is deductible from tax base, to SKK 12 000 annually) 90,6 1,64 55,1
5. Act on Energy Management (Implementing EU directives; full opening of the electricity and gas market to competition; specifying conditions for all subjects to enter the market; rights and obligations of participants exactly specified; selection of supplier allowed for all customers, for households from 1st July 2007; unbundling of transit from distribution obligatory) 90,1 1,68 53,7
6. Act on Financial Market Supervision (Creating integrated supervision over whole financial market at the hand of National Bank of Slovakia) 86,1 1,67 51,5
7. Amendment to the Act on Waste (Introducing an obligation for electro-devices producers to take care of delivered electric waste at their own costs) 57,2 1,59 36,0
8. Amendment to the Act on Regulation in Network Industries (Harmonisation with the EU law; setting up rules for electricity, gas and heat energy market; extending competence and responsibility of the Regulatory Office for Network Industries (Office of Utilities Regulation) (ÚRSO); obligation of Regulatory Office to give reasons for its decisions; appealing toward ÚRSO decisions in the price proceeding impossible, but the legitimacy of procedure can be examined by the court; competencies in factual regulation of entrepreneurship in the hands of ÚRSO, not of Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic) 53,0 1,11 47,8
9. Amendment to the Social Insurance Act (Abolishing possibility of forgiving penalty for unpaid social contributions to the Social Insurance Agency; allowing immediate assignment of claims to a third person; allowing cross subsidies between funds of the Social Insurance Agency also in 2005 and 2006) 47,7 1,12 42,4
10. Amendment to the Act on Construction Saving Schemes (Specifying formula to calculate the state premium (bonus) in construction saving schemes; extending trading possibilities of construction saving banks on the financial market and providing construction loans) 46,9 1,24 37,7
11. Amendment to the Act on Medicaments and Medical Aids (Allowing ownership of pharmacies by legal entities and non-pharmacists; selling drugs in supermarkets not approved; setting-up the use of drug books; more obligations for pharmacists) 41,8 1,00 41,8
12. Splitting the Joint Stock Company Železničná spoločnosť, a.s. (Railway Company) (Creating 2 new joint stock companies fully owned by the state - Railway Company Slovakia for the passenger traffic and Railway Company Cargo Slovakia for the freight transport; privatisation of freight railway transport planned in 2005) 41,7 0,99 42,3
13. Act on Heating Energy Production (Setting up rules for entrepreneurship in heating energy production on the basis of official license; warm water meters and heating meters compulsory in households from 1st January 2007 - at their own cost; calculating the usage of heat according to specified meters; competencies in regulation not moved from the Ministry of Economy and Regulatory Office for Network Industries onto higher territorial units and municipalities) 36,7 0,78 46,9
14. Increase in Regulated Prices (gas, electricity, heating, water and sewerage, postal fees) 36,0 0,69 52,1
15. Imposing Penalty on the Slovnaft (oil) Company Due to Inclusion of Unjustified Costs and Undue Profit into Fuel Prices and because of the False Information Provided, amounting SKK 1.353bn, in pursuance of Price Inspection of the Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic; Refunding Irresponsibly Gained Amount into State Budget) 35,7 0,84 42,3
16. Reduction of Interest Rates by the National Bank of Slovakia by 0.5 Percentage Points 32,7 0,69 47,6
17. Prolonging the Protection of Medical Facilities from Execution until the End of 2005; Allowing Transformation of State Hospitals into Non-Profit Organisations 12,0 0,26 46,2
18. Act on the Company for Motorways and Dual Carriageways (Creating National Motorway Company with 100% state ownership participation) 10,6 0,26 41,6
19. Merging 6 State-Owned Hospitals in Bratislava and 2 in Košice 10,5 0,32 33,2
20. Social Insurance Agency’s General Pardon (Extraordinary use of the so-called institute of forgiving penalty from unpaid social insurance contributions - possible after debt principal repayment) -4,0 -0,12 33,3
21. Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Slovak Republic and the Truthheim Invest LLC (Proposing the accession of private investor into the new Slovak National Theatre (Slovenské národné divadlo (SND)) building; private investor´s capital of EUR 20m to complete the building in 2 years; completed building operation in hands of the company; original purpose of the building for culture partially preserved; renting of rooms to cultural entities at preferential prices for 20 years at least; investor´s participation in profits - 90 per cent until the capital redemption; veto privilege on decisions in handling with property; the investor bears all financial and non-financial risks) -25,2 -1,00 25,2
22. Additional Subsidy to the Slovak Radio in order to Redeem a Debt, amounting SKK 183m -26,7 -1,13 23,7
  RATING/Quality/Importance of the 4th QUARTER 2004 (passed measures) 50,9 0,89 48,4
  RATING/Quality/Importance of the 3rd QUARTER 2004 (passed measures) 72,2 1,26 51,8
Measures of EU
1. European Comission´s Complaint on Germany for Protection of the Volkswagen Car Factory by the So-Called “Volkswagen Law”, which Gives Voting Rights to Federal Government Regardless of Their Property Participation, Veto Privilege and which Makes Effective Takeover of the Company Impossible 56,5 1,73 32,8
2. Turkey Invited to European Union Accession Talks (Opening of negotiations in the autumn 2005; open end accession negotiations - the result does not have to be the EU membership; conditions - closing of the so-called Cyprus issue, follow-through with reforms on the field of democracy and human rights protection, implementing criminal legislature of the EU) 43,7 0,95 46
3. Proposal for Directive on Cross-Border Mergers of Companies with Share Capital (Setting-up legislative framework for merging small and medium-sized businesses between two European Union member states; making mergers simpler and eliminating expensive methods (branch-establishing); approving the clause, which preserves employees’ influence on business management, whereas national model with higher level of employees’ participation will be used) 43,66 1,16 37,7
4. European Union’s Budget for the Year 2005 (Deficit of EUR 10.2bn; expenses amounting to EUR 116.5bn; incomes of EUR 106.3bn; 42.7 per cent of expenses for agriculture; 36.4 per cent for structural actions) -20,5 -0,40 51,3

Slovak Experts' Committee