The Sejm, the lower of house of parliament, on Thursday passed a law temporarily scrapping VAT on food, gas and energy under a government scheme designed to shield Poles from the effects of rising inflation.
The law, passed unanimously as an amendment to existing VAT legislation, also cuts the VAT on fuel to 8 percent and on heating to 5 percent.
The new VAT rates will be in force from February 1 to July 31.
On Thursday Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland’s prime minister, said the anti-inflation measures will save households up to several hundred zlotys a month.
Morawiecki said the plan was the government’s answer to Poland’s current situation, in which it “is facing a global crisis, and inflation crisis, a post-pandemic crisis, an economic crisis.”
Inflation in Poland rose to 8.6 percent in December.