WARSAW. AUGUST 17. INTERFAX CENTRAL EUROPE - Poland's government Friday appeared poised to finally abandon any attempt at even modest fiscal reform, as Finance Minister Zyta Gilowska said the government was mulling, "whether and when" to submit the relevant draft bill to Parliament.
"We are not dropping the project, but we are thinking, whether and when to submit it," Gilowska said, according to a report by the Polish Press Agency (PAP). "We are now considering whether there is any point in a first reading [in Parliament], as the probability of its passing is very small."
As Poland is set for a snap general election as early as this autumn, halfway through the four-year term of Parliament, Speaker Ludwik Dorn said several key bills would be passed before MPs vote to end the term. Gilowska met the speaker Friday, though it would appear her flagship public-finance reform bill will not be among the package to get through this term.
"There will be some disappointment that this government will end up doing nothing for fiscal reform," (29 EUR, 3,32%) Bank senior economist Bartosz Pawlowski said. "But that is not much of a surprise. If you talk about something for quite so long, and do nothing, people are bound to have doubts."