Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Thursday the urgent adoption of changes aimed at:
- a temporary reduction of the VAT rate on petrol and diesel from 23% to 8%,
- temporary reduction of the excise duty rate on petrol by 0.29 PLN /l and diesel by 0.28 PLN /l,
- introduction of a maximum price at which petrol and diesel can be sold during the application of the reduced VAT rate. This price will be announced by the Minister of Energy every working day and will be effective on the day after its announcement, with the provision that the price announced on the working day preceding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and other public holidays will be applied to the working day following these days, including this working day. Violation of the ban on the sale of fuels at a price higher than will be subject to a penalty of up to PLN
1 million.
The reason why those changes are adopted is that the government want to counteract the increase of price of fuel due to the war in Iran.
The change in the VAT rate will be introduced by a Decree of the Minister of Finance pursuant to Article 146ej of the VAT Act. The draft of the Decree has not been published yet. However, the Ministry of Finance can issue Decrees and publish them in the Journal of Laws at any given time. Hence this change can be implemented at very short notice.
Changes in the scope of excise duty and the maximum price changes of the appropriate Acts by the Polish Parliament that needs to be also signed by the President. According to the government’s announcements, the relevant bills are to be passed by the Parliament on Friday. It is expected that they will be signed by the President soon afterwards. According to the drafts, the amendments are to enter into force on the day following the date of their publication in the Journal of Laws.
That being said, it is expected that all the above changes may come into effect within the next few days.
We will inform you as soon as the relevant regulations are published in the Journal of Laws.
The legislative process concerning the excise duty and maximum price acts can be followed at these links – excise duty, maximum price.
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The information contained in the alert is general and does not represent the tax opinion and does not cover all changes resulting from the proposed regulation. Before making any decision or action, as well as in case of any questions or concerns, please contact our tax advisers, tel.+48 22 250 31 00.
