- On December 17, 2021, the president signed a law reducing excise duty on electricity and some motor fuels, no tax on electricity used by households, and no tax on retail sales of fuels.
- From January to March 2022, lower VAT will apply to natural gas, electricity and heat.
- This is an element of the Anti-Inflation Shield announced by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
The changes are introduced by the Act on Excise Tax and Retail Sales Tax. This is a reaction to rising fuel and electricity prices.
The Act provides:
- reduction of tax rates for electricity and some motor fuels,
- exemption from excise duty for electricity used by households,
- exclusion of fuel sales from the retail sales tax.
As a result, the government moderates the increases in electricity prices and enables the reduction of fuel prices sold at gas stations.
Energy for the house without excise duty
The current rate is PLN 5/1 MWh. The tax exemption will apply from January 1, 2022 to May 31, 2022.
Lower excise tax on electricity and fuels
EU law does not allow for the zeroing of energy and fuel levies. They only make it possible to reduce them to the EU minimum. Poland uses this option.
The amendment assumes a reduction in excise duty rates on energy products to the amount of the minimum excise duty (including the fuel surcharge and the emission levy) in such a way that the amount of the emission levy and the fuel surcharge will remain in 2021 and 2022 at the current level.
We are lowering to the EU minimum:
- excise duty rates for diesel oil, biocomponents constituting intrinsic fuels, motor gasoline, liquefied gas LPG (from December 20, 2021 to May 31, 2022)
- excise duty on electricity for other recipients (from January 1, 2022 to May 31, 2022)
Sales of fuels without retail tax
The retail sales tax also affects fuel prices. Therefore, Poland will resign from collecting this tax on the sale of motor fuels (from January 1, 2022 to May 31, 2022).
Support for taxpayers
Rising prices are a problem faced by all countries. The package will protect the budgets of households and companies. The total cost for the budget is PLN 1.5 billion, including:
- reduction of excise tax on motor fuels and electricity PLN 1.3 billion,
- electricity exemption for households PLN 0.1 billion,
- excluding sales of motor fuels from the retail tax PLN 0.146 billion.
Lower VAT
The solutions implemented by the Ministry of Finance also assume a reduction in VAT rates in the period from January to March 2022. VAT on:
- natural gas (from 23% to 8%) – for the budget it costs about PLN 0.7 billion, over 9 million households will benefit from the changes,
- electricity (from 23% to 5%) – for the budget it costs about PLN 1.15 billion,
- thermal energy (from 23% to 8%) – about 6.5 million households will benefit from the changes, for the budget it costs about PLN 0.5 billion.
These changes were introduced by way of a regulation published on December 20, 2021, item 2350.
We are also asking the European Commission for the possibility of temporary application of zero VAT on food, natural gas, electricity and heat and reduced VAT (from 23% to 8%) on fuel.
Source: gov.pl
