WARSAW: Poland’s Finance Minister said on Tuesday Warsaw would introduce a reshaped levy on supermarkets after the EU ordered it suspend a progressive retail tax and started a probe.
Paweł Szałamacha said the finance ministry would revise next year’s draft budget since the government would not be able to count on a sizeable boost to state coffers from the recently-introduced retail tax. Szałamacha was speaking after the European Commission on Monday told Warsaw to suspend tax rules that came into force in Poland on 1 September. Brussels voiced concern the tax could favour smaller shops, and that this could breach EU state aid rules.
Szałamacha on Tuesday hit out at the “controversial, imprudent decision” by the the executive arm of the EU, but said Poland would suspend the retail tax in its current form. He told reporters a new-look supermarket tax would be introduced on 1 January. “This year the budget will not see the revenue coming in that we assumed – that is obvious,” Szałamacha added.
The government had expected the retail tax to boost state coffers by PLN 1.6 billion next year. The tax was proposed as part of the Law and Justice (PiS) party’s election campaign last year.
PiS politicians argued that new rules were needed to even out the chances of small businesses competing with large retail chains. Revenue from the tax was expected to help fund several of PiS’s electoral pledges, including its flagship “500+” child benefits programme.
