Poland’s Sejm, lower house of parliament, has passed a budget bill that will enable the new government to fulfill some of its key election promises, but involves a deficit exceeding EU recommendations.
According to the budget bill approved by the Sejm on January 18, state revenues are planned at nearly PLN 682.4 billion (EUR 154.9 billion) and expenditures PLN 866.4 billion (EUR 196.6 billion).
The deficit is not anticipated to exceed PLN 184 billion (EUR 41.8 billion), or 5.1% of GDP according to EU methodology.
The EU requires the general government deficit of member states not to exceed 3% of GDP, but the rule was temporarily relaxed during the coronavirus pandemic, as countries faced increased spending to prop up their battered economies.
A total of 240 MPs voted in favour of this year’s budget legislation, 191 were against and three abstained.
Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said on January 18: “We didn’t have too much time, but we managed to vote today, and we’ve got our budget.”
“This brings me great satisfaction, because it is truly a “people’s budget”,” he said, adding that “we (the government) fought to have the budget redirect as much money as possible towards the needs of people, the needs of patients.”
The budget bill now heads to the Senate. (PAP/Business World Magazine)
