The bill presented by the Chancellery of the President assumes the creation of the Polish Defense Investment Fund, which would operate within the Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego. This fund, supplied with the profits of the National Bank of Poland, would be intended to finance the modernization of the armed forces. There are plans to allocate as much as PLN 185 billion for this purpose. To ensure liquidity, BGK could take out loans, issue bonds on the domestic and foreign markets and use other financial mechanisms.
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Decisions on spending funds from the fund would be made by a special steering committee, which would consist of five people: the head of the Ministry of National Defense, representatives of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as representatives of the President and the National Security Bureau. A 2/3 majority of votes would be required to make a decision, which – as “Rzeczpospolita” notes – could enable the presidential party to block the decision.
Economists: it's risky and unconstitutional
Experts interviewed by “Rzeczpospolita” leave no stone unturned in the proposals of the president and the head of the NBP. Prof. Witold Orłowski reminds that according to the constitution, the profits of the National Bank of Poland should go to the state budget.
“In this form, these proposals are contrary to the constitution, which requires the NBP to transfer profits to the budget. It is also very risky economically and certainly not costlessbecause it involves various costs that our central bank would have to face,” the economist emphasizes.
“The NBP's profit is paper. It has been absent in recent years and the central bank has recorded losses. But even if there were, it would still go to the central budget. There is nothing extraordinary here except that the president and the head of the National Bank of Poland would like to decide what to do with this profit. But why? After all, it is the government that conducts fiscal policy,” said Maciej Bukowski, economist and president of the management board of the WiseEuropa think tank, in an interview with “Rzeczpospolita”.
Also in his opinion there is no question of any “z0 percent”. To maintain the liquidity of the new fund, BGK would have to issue bonds at the interest rate at which someone would like to buy them. “Even reaching 3 percent. costs is, in my opinion, completely impossible“- he emphasized.
Jakub Karnowski, president of the management board of KredoBank, is even more harsh. — There is no such thing as “SAFE zero percent”. These are dangerous fairy tales that may do more harm than good, he says. According to him, the best solution for Polish finances and security is participation in the EU SAFE program, and not unclear proposals of the president and the president of the NBP.
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Jakub Karnowski, president of the management board of KredoBank, commented that based on his professional experience to date, he comes to the conclusion that “there is no such thing as SAFE 0 percent.”
In his opinion, participation in the EU SAFE program is the best for Polish finances, the Polish economy and Poland's security. “The undefined proposals of the NBP president and the president are dangerous fairy tales for many reasons.” – he assessed.
Adam Glapiński about NBP gold
Let us recall that on Wednesday, the head of the NBP, Prof., talked about the details of the solution pushed by the president. Adam Glapiński.
– I would like to remind you that we are operating under higher raison d'état, in a situation where there is a need to quickly increase the security of Poles – began the president of the NBP. — There is a very urgent need to finance armaments. Within three years, he added.
— Our strategy assumed and still assumes that we collect and store gold and that this gold builds Poland's security, as well as – I have not said this before – state security in the event of a military problem. This is the resource of the Polish nation. The law does not provide for how the state should use these resources. Then the national assembly and the president can meet and decide something. We, as the central bank, know what to do, we have developed emergency scenarios – he announced.
He repeated that the current raison d'état is the rapid construction of a strong army.
– Bearing in mind that we have accumulated this unrealized value of PLN 197 billion, it is obvious that it occurred to me to use these funds to build the armed forces, so that no one would think of attacking us – said Prof. Glapiński.
