Opinions have recently appeared in the media that The deposit system operating in Poland has loopholes that may lead to its unfair use, such as the so-called VAT carousels. This term is mainly associated with criminal trade in goods, fictitious transactions and tax fraud. As experts wrote in Business Insider, the deposit system is a financial system, and “any such arrangement, if not properly secured, becomes subject to mechanisms well known from the history of VAT.”
The Ministry of Climate and Environment referred to these comparisons in its statement. “They suggest the possibility of deposit fraud through the sale and calculation of deposits instead of declared exports or mechanisms resulting from the retrospective refund of deposits upon export. They are not confirmed in any existing regulations,” the ministry emphasizes.
See also: A deposit system with loopholes. Manufacturers are circumventing the regulations, the ministry is analyzing the changes
Deposit system. The Ministry of Climate denies the allegations
According to the ministry, the very structure of the system limits the possibility of fraud and irregularities. As we read in the statement, “the deposit 'goes' in one direction – there are no grounds for demanding a retroactive refund. In the case of export, the marketer does not mark the packages with a deposit sign, does not collect it from the wholesaler and it does not go to the operator. Comparisons to 'VAT carousels' are inappropriate.”
As the ministry emphasizes in a statement, “already at the very beginning of the supply chain, the entrepreneur decides whether he produces for export or for the internal market. In the case of production for export, he does not apply the provisions on deposits, so he does not mark the packaging with a deposit sign and does not collect it from the wholesaler.”
“Methods of potential fraud described in the media are based on the false assumption that there is a mechanism for retroactive deposit refund. Meanwhile “there is no legal basis in the regulations regarding the deposit system to request a retroactive refund,” informs the Ministry of Climate.
See also: Is the deposit system in Poland failing? Expert: “Vending machines do not meet basic requirements”
“The system is designed in such a way that at each stage of the supply chain, the entities themselves monitor the correctness of the deposit circulation so that its value is transferred along with the product to the next link in the chain – from the wholesaler, through the store, to the retail customer – until the return of the packaging and the customer's recovery of the deposit.
The forms of fraud described in the media would therefore mean not only breaking the law, but also the actions of the fraudster or individual market entities to their own detriment,” we read in the commentary of the Ministry of Climate and Environment.
