During Saturday's press conference in Łomża, Prime Minister Donald Tusk clearly referred to the future of government support on the fuel market.
Read also: Scam on mObywatela. This is the new way of extorting money
The head of government was asked by journalists how long the intervention package introduced at the end of March, abbreviated as CPN, will remain in force.
“We assumed, and we did, that we would pay extra by the summer to prevent fuel prices from going up – we did. We had the cheapest fuel in Europe during this crisis, but of course we will finish this project now, in the summer” – said Donald Tusk.
Hope comes from the Middle East. Donald Tusk on “good” prospects
The “Fuel Prices Lower” (CPN) program was created as a shield to protect consumers against the drastic effects of the fuel crisis caused by the war in the Middle East. The attack by the United States and Israel on Iran on February 28 led to a sharp increase in the prices of crude oil and finished fuels on world stock exchanges, which immediately hit the pockets of Polish drivers.
To counteract the crisis, the government reduced the VAT rate from 23 to 8 percent and cut excise duty by 29 groszy per liter of gasoline and 28 groszy per liter of diesel oil (to the minimum EU levels). A mechanism of maximum prices at stations was also introduced.
Although an amendment to the regulation extending the lower VAT was published on Friday, PAP found from sources close to the Ministry of Finance that excise tax relief will not be extended. As a result, from mid-to-late June, apart from reduced VAT, only maximum prices set daily by the Minister of Energy will apply. The regulations state that top-down price limits at gas stations apply as long as the reduced VAT rate persists.
Read also: Data centers versus the water crisis. We answer the most important questions
The withdrawal of costly budget subsidies coincides with optimistic signals from the international arena. As the Prime Minister assessed, the prospects for ending the US-Iran conflict “are good.”
Tusk emphasized that although positive symptoms had already appeared earlier, the current “first information, decisions on, among others, the unblocking of Iranian money by the (Arab) Emirates in connection with progress in peace talks, they give hope that the increase in fuel prices caused by the war will be stopped and they will return to some normal level“.
