Poland’s president has vetoed amendments to bills which would have seen taxes increased for sweetened beverages, including energy drinks, as well as alcohol.
On Thursday (18 December), president Karol Nawrocki’s office confirmed that the proposed changes to the Public Health Act and the Personal Income Tax Act had been rejected.
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The new rules would have seen the sugar tax on sweetened drinks increase from 0.50 złotys to 0.70 złotys per litre of beverages with up to 5g of sugar or sweetener per litre.
A fee of 0.10 złotys for every gram of sugar above 5g in a 100ml drink was also intended to be introduced.
Energy drinks, containing caffeine or taurine, were also expected to see charges go up from 0.10 to 1 złotys per litre of the drink.
The act was originally proposed to come into force in January.
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By GlobalDataIn a motion document sent to the Polish governing body (Sejm) president Nawrocki expressed his disagreement with the proposed amendments.
He said: “In my opinion, it is difficult to believe that such instruments, in their proposed form, constitute an effective tool for achieving the health goals outlined in the justification for the challenged law.”
The amendments to the sugar tax were proposed by the local government in October as part of series of broader changes to the Public Health Act and person Income Tax Act.
The justification document for the proposed amendments argued that changes were necessary to encourage consumers to make healthy choices, and restrict “the economic availability of sweetened beverages”.
Citing data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Supreme Audit Office (NIK) on growing obesity levels in Poland and the potential impact on the local economy, the document said endorsing actions that can reduce the amount of money spent on obesity-related disease treatments would support both the health of citizens and help to protect the national state budget.
President Nawrocki said in his motion that though he did not deny the statistical data and agreed there was a need to act, he thought “the primary burden of state intervention should be placed on educational and preventative measures”, and specifically, “the long-term shaping of health attitudes and habits, especially among children and adolescents, through systematic promotion of knowledge about the consequences of poor nutrition, excessive consumption of highly processed foods, and lack of daily physical activity”.
He also advocated for protecting children against harmful marketing which “that shape unhealthy eating patterns at an early stage of development”.
Increasing the price of sugar-sweetened drinks, he said, would “trigger short-term consumer reactions”.
The president has also rejected the proposed amendment to the Excise Duty Act, which would have seen excise rates for alcohol rise 15% in 2026 from 2025 rates, and by another 10% in 2027.
In a motion document refusing to sign the Excise Duty Act, the president said: “Raising the excise tax rate, in my opinion, is intended to bring only a purely fiscal effect in the form of increased revenues to the state budget, but not to prevent or counteract alcohol addiction.”
He added: “At most, it may contribute to the expansion of the so-called ‘grey economy’ and therefore even the predictable pro-fiscal nature of the proposed increase may not have the intended effect”.
