President Andrzej Duda has signed a law introducing credit holidays for people who have taken out loans in Polish currency for their own housing purpose. Millions of Poles will be able to suspend some of their instalments in the coming months.

During the signing ceremony of the act at the Belvedere, the President said that it was not an easy act to sign, because in difficult times decisive choices had to be made regarding the financial market and the functioning of banks in the context of the functioning of households.

“It will primarily help borrowers, all those who bought flats, built houses, took out mortgages and, in the face of rising interest rates and high inflation, found themselves in a difficult situation”, stated Andrzej Duda.

According to the law, credit holidays will allow the deferment of the repayment of mortgage loans granted in Polish currency for a total of eight months: two months in the third and fourth quarters of this year and one month in each of the four quarters of next year. The term of the loan will be extended by the number of months when the suspension of the loan repayment was used.

The law also provides for an increase in the funds allocated for subsidies from the Borrower Support Fund. Banks will pay an additional PLN 1.4 billion into the fund by the end of the year.

The act also contains provisions extending the operation of the anti-inflation shields from 31 July to 31 October this year. The shields apply a lower VAT rate on fuels (8% instead of 23%), the VAT rate on electricity and heat is 5%, and the VAT rate on gas is 0%. VAT on basic food products, fertilisers and selected agricultural inputs is reduced to 0%.

There is also an extension of the reduction in excise duty on electricity, exemption from excise duty on electricity for households, and reductions in excise duty rates on certain motor fuels and on light fuel oil.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński