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The future of Česká pošta (Czech Post) is unclear as key ministers in the centre-left coalition government have differing views as to what to do with the country’s state-owned mail service, Hospodářské noviny reported on Monday.

The lower house of Parliament has approved the abolition of direct payments in health care, introduced by the former centre-right government. Under the new bill, patients will no longer be required to pay 30 crowns (almost 2 US dollars) for every visit to the doctor or a 30 crown fee for medical prescriptions in pharmacies. The only fee that remains in effect is a 90 crown fee for emergency visits.

The rail operator Arriva, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, has been excluded from a tender to operate express trains on a route in western Czech Republic over a formality in the bid. The subsidized route will now most likely go to the only other contender, state-owned Czech Railways.

A further wave of clampdowns on Czech solar power and other renewables companies is in the wind. But the companies, cast as villains and profiteers for the high subsidies paid out of electricity bills, have powerful allies and the proposed bill is getting a tough ride.

The Czech Republic has been long regarded as Europe’s gambling heaven, but that may soon change. While Czech municipalities were recently given greater powers in regulating gambling on their premises, the Czech Ministry of Finance is now working on legislation that would seriously restrict the lottery business.

Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka’s centre-left cabinet on Monday unanimously approved the draft of the 2015 state budget. The proposal envisages a deficit of 100 billion crowns, i.e. 2.3 percent of the GDP, a wage hike for civil servants and a small increase in pensions.

The Czech Agriculture Ministry has announced plans to introduce new legislation which should determine what food products can be labelled as Czech. The ministry believes such legislation would prevent retailers from deceiving consumers, who are increasingly choose domestic products over foreign imports.

The market in home deliveries of foodstuffs – at present dominated by UK retailer Tesco – looks set to hot up, with relative newcomer Rohlík.cz preparing to expand beyond Prague and supply consumers in other Czech cities, the news website Aktuálně.cz reported.

The short lived Czech and Slovak monetary union has been in the spotlight again as the referendum vote on Scottish independence looms on Thursday. A similar currency union allowing Scotland to keep the pound is one of the targets of those backing independence.

In the wake of reduced deliveries of Russian gas to Poland, Slovakia and Austria in recent weeks - the EU’s dependence on Russian gas and finding alternative supplies to boost security has shot up the agenda again. And alongside other European countries heavily dependent on Russian gas supplies, the Czech Republic is taking stock of its reserves and preparing for a possible emergency.