Poland aims to raise tax on fuels amid social-spending drive

Bloomberg

Poland’s parliament started debate on legislation to raise the tax on petrol, reversing on an election promise even after producing a reported budget surplus in the first half.
The ruling party proposed the tariff to provide as much as 5 billion zloty ($1.3 billion) a year to the budget, according to parliament’s website. Law & Justice, which vowed not to hike taxes before winning power in 2015 elections, is seeking additional revenue as the costs of an
unprecedented social-spend-
ing program and an early-retirement plan weigh on state
finances.
The tax debate in parliament on Wednesday, part of an accelerated process that bypasses the customary public consultations, follows a government tax-collection revamp to reduce fraud. That measure boosted revenue from value-added taxes through May by 30 percent from a year earlier. The Finance Ministry boasted a five-month central-government deficit of 200 million-zloty, and after the central bank transferred its profit to the state coffers in June, that became a surplus, daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna reported.
“The government is obviously trying to minimize the cost of election promises,” said Jaroslaw Janecki, chief economist at Societe Generale SA in Warsaw.