Green Savings is currently ineffective according to companies

Source
Daniel Novák
Publisher
ČTK
09.06.2009 18:10
Czech Republic

Prague

The CANABA company, which produces, among other things, the Classic Luxus family house, seems to face strict conditions for obtaining the subsidy.
Prague - The Green Savings subsidy program has yet to provide a significant boost for construction and other companies. Builders, heating engineers, and window manufacturers primarily criticize the strictly set rules, due to which only a minimal number of applicants can access ecological subsidies. ČTK learned this today among the companies that have joined the program as expert suppliers.
    At the beginning of this week, the State Environmental Fund recorded nine interested parties for subsidies, Irena Plocková, who is responsible for the Green Savings program in the fund, told ČTK today. When launching the program at the beginning of April, former Environment Minister Martin Bursík promised that this year alone, the program would offer subsidies to 250,000 households.
    The program is managed by the State Environmental Fund. This year, the Green Savings program is expected to offer ten billion crowns, with an additional 15 billion crowns in the next three years. The funds for the program were obtained by the Czech Republic through the sale of surplus emission allowances to Japan.
    By the end of May, according to the program's website, over 1,800 companies were listed in the registry of expert suppliers who can carry out insulation and other work. The Ministry of the Environment, along with the media, initially created the impression among companies that every applicant would receive a subsidy. Immediately after the announcement of the program, institutions and companies were reportedly flooded with questions from interested parties.
    "The conditions are set so strictly that as far as supporting construction is concerned, and therefore also in the immediate impact on ecology, it is currently missing its mark," said Pavel Herclík, sales director of the Prague company Canaba, to ČTK.
    To illustrate, he used a comparison to the scrappage scheme for purchasing new cars. "If the conditions were set as strictly, a scrappage grant would only be available for cars powered by hydrogen or solar energy," he noted. "To release a program so unprepared into the world and fine-tune it on the go is quite rare. We believe it should have been launched later but much better prepared," added Libor Směja, the managing director of esel technologies.
    The complicated rules of the program, according to Michaela Kopecká, a manager from the company Profistav in Litomyšl, will prevent billions from the Green Savings program from becoming a significant boost for domestic construction. "However, we are not convinced that this program could contribute significantly to alleviating the economic recession, primarily due to the complexity of the subsidy application process," Kopecká stated.
    A partial relaxation of the conditions for granting subsidies, which the Ministry of the Environment announced last week, did not bring about a change for the better. People will now be able to obtain a subsidy even if they have already completed one partial measure to reduce energy consumption for heating and are preparing for two more. However, companies wanted the requirement for a combination to be completely abolished. "We would welcome if the granting of subsidies could relate separately to individual measures without the need for their combination," said Jiří Havlín, sales manager of the České Budějovice company LD Invest, to ČTK.
    Despite the program's difficulties, construction and energy companies do not dismiss the idea altogether and believe that the program itself makes sense. "There will be more contracts, even though not in large quantities. I can't quantify it specifically, but primarily it will raise awareness that people should do something regarding savings. Also, even during a recession, it's safe and well-invested money," concluded Lukáš Sovák from the company S WHG from Valašské Meziříčí.
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