Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a social media post: "I know that many families that use gas to heat their homes are worried about what's in store for them in the coming months. My government has prepared a set of relief measures at this time of Putinflation."
Climate Minister Anna Moskwa told a news conference on Friday that the government was proposing "a 100-percent freeze on the gas tariff that households will pay at this year’s level in terms of the net amount."
She said there would be no income criteria for the tariff freeze.
Anna Moskwa. Photo: Polish Radio/PR1
Additionally, around 300,000 low-income households will be eligible for government support with gas bills, according to officials.
The measures will cost public coffers around PLN 30 billion (EUR 6.4 billion, USD 6.7 billion) in total, Moskwa said.
The Polish prime minister said earlier this month that his government would extend its anti-inflation policies to the next year, but would modify their shape to allay the concerns of the European Commission.
Morawiecki told reporters at the time that Russia “through its price policy, through its energy policy, has caused a dramatic surge in energy prices across Europe.”
He added the soaring energy prices “have also affected Polish entrepreneurs, as well as increasing the costs faced by all the institutions and households.”
Morawiecki declared: “Our measures in response to Putin and Russia’s energy war are designed to alleviate these enormous costs.”
He added the government was seeking to protect people against rising prices “in various ways” amid Russia's war in Ukraine.
Morawiecki has said he hopes inflation will begin to fall "by the end of the first quarter of 2023, maybe in the second quarter of 2023,” although “it will hit us hard during the winter months, when the prices of energy commodities are so steep.”
Mateusz Morawiecki. Photo: Adam Guz/KPRM
The Polish government’s “anti-inflation shield” includes scrapping value-added tax (VAT) on food, cutting the tax on fuel to 8 percent, and reducing the VAT on gas and heat, among other measures, according to officials.
Monday is day 278 of Russia's war in Ukraine.
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Source: PAP, Reuters