Czech president signs laws raising parental benefit, fines for polluters

The parental benefit going to families for children aged up to four years will increase by 80,000 crowns, to 300,000, as of January, based on the bill the lower house passed on Tuesday and President Milos Zeman signed into law today, his spokesman Jiri Ovcacek has told media. Parental benefit can be drawn by families at various speeds, either in higher monthly sums for a shorter period of time or in smaller sums for a longer period, up to the child's age of four at the latest.