Poland will further tighten and simplify tax system says PM

Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, has said the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party will strive to further tighten and simplify the country's tax system.

He made the pledge on Saturday at a PiS convention held to announce the party's manifesto policies ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for this autumn.

"Tightening (of the tax system - PAP) is already increasingly facing hurdles, as there is not much left to tighten and here we will still do a lot to raise further tens of billions (of zlotys - PAP)," Morawiecki said.

"We will further simplify taxes," he added.

According to Morawiecki, PiS wants wage growth to be "as strong as possible."

"We know how to do it - through attracting new investments that are technologically highly advanced," he said. "There are highly paid jobs there, a productivity increase."

Morawiecki also vowed that if the ruling party wins the autumn elections it intends to "permanently introduce Strategic and Local Investment Programmes" that allocate non-returnable government resources to local governments under the Covid-19 Prevention Fund.

He also said that PiS wants to fight inflation as quickly as possible, but not at the expense of unemployment.

"It is impossible to get out of inflation painlessly in a short period of time," Morawiecki argued. "Unemployment, loss of jobs hurt the most... therefore we protect jobs ... companies against bankruptcy, we create security shields."

He also quoted the leader of the Labour Party of Great Britain, Keir Starmer, who pointed to World Bank data indicating that, on current trajectories, Poland's GDP per capita will overtake the UK's by 2030.

But, Morawiecki stipulated, for this to happen, the PiS programme must be implemented. "The one that we have been implementing so far, as well as the one that was forged during our meetings with Poles, who are our best experts," he said.