Sejm Marshal (Speaker) Włodzimierz Czarzasty said Monday that there will be no extraordinary session of the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament, on the bill prepared by Law and Justice (PiS) that would set an 8% VAT on all solid fuels and a 5% VAT on electricity and heat.
PiS caucus leader Mariusz Błaszczak had asked the Sejm marshal to call an extraordinary session on the matter.
Asked about it at a briefing in Bielsko-Biała, Czarzasty replied that “it is always worth convening an extraordinary session of the Sejm when it is not being convened only to highlight Mr. Błaszczak’s cause.”
The Sejm marshal noted that he is not yet familiar with the bill and said he would “take a look at it” on Tuesday. “Third, it is normal procedure for a bill like this. Bills are reviewed by the relevant offices in the Sejm and put out for public consultation, which lasts a month,” he said.
“I don’t block — and I have never wanted to — Sejm bills, when it comes to bills from parliamentary caucuses. But of course I will not convene an extraordinary session of the Sejm because Mr. Błaszczak came up with the idea and thinks that’s simply how it’s going to be. The Sejm is functioning calmly and sensibly. The next session is next week. There is a time for everything,” Czarzasty stressed.
The marshal also suggested that the PiS caucus leader talk to PiS lawmaker Marek Suski, chair of the Sejm energy committee, where the president’s bill on freezing energy prices has been sitting for more than a year.
“Perhaps you could tell Mr. Suski not to block the bills of President Nawrocki, because it provokes my sincere outrage,” Czarzasty said. He added that the president’s second bill on energy prices did not include a source of funding and therefore was not advanced, and because three months had passed since it was submitted, the Sejm rejected the motion to proceed with it.
On Monday afternoon, Mariusz Błaszczak wrote on the platform X that he had sent the Sejm marshal a letter asking him to convene an extraordinary session of the Sejm this week to adopt the “Cheap Heating” (“Tanie Ogrzewanie”) bill.
He noted that the bill would lower the VAT rate on heating fuels and energy, currently 23%. He added that PiS lawmakers want the Sejm to “take it up as soon as possible, so that the provisions take effect before Nov. 1.”
Earlier on Monday, PiS Vice President Przemysław Czarnek presented the details of the bill at a news conference.
“We are proposing a VAT rate of 8% on all solid fuels — coal, briquettes, pellets,” the lawmaker said. In his view, as a result “coal will be cheaper, as will briquettes, by PLN 250 to 300 per ton.”
The PiS bill also envisions a 5% VAT rate on electricity and heat. In Czarnek’s opinion, this would save the budget of an average family up to PLN 70 a month.
“This is the Cheap Heating 1.0 package, which needs to be put into effect immediately (…) to calm the situation in Polish families, and also among microbusiness owners,” Czarnek said. (PAP)
