BCC warns of excessive deficit risk and calls for budget spending cuts for 2025.

In the justification for the 2025 budget bill, one of the government’s main goals is the restoration of parliamentary and societal control over the accumulation and expenditure of public funds, and the restoration of the transparency of public funds transfers.

The BCC accepts this declaration, which coincides with the claim repeatedly presented by employers’ organizations, assuming that in the realities of the 2025 budget this means a burden on the state budget of PLN 63 billion for the repayment of bonds issued by PFR and BGK.

The BCC assesses the relationship of government and municipal institutions’ debt to GDP (according to EU definitions) as carrying a very high risk, which is expected to reach 59.8% by the end of 2025, just 0.2% below the reference value of 60% contained in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

If Poland adjusts its methodology to the EU standard, it would exceed the legal red line of 55% and even the limit set in the Polish Constitution.

In this situation, the July decision of the EU Council stating that there is an excessive deficit in Poland should prompt the government to re-analyze the expenditure side of the 2025 budget bill in particular, in order to reduce the maximum planned deficit of PLN 289 billion, which would indirectly help to reduce the cost of servicing the national debt calculated at PLN 75.5 billion- says Witold Michałek, BCC expert on economy, legislation, and lobbying.

A detailed analysis of planned budget expenditures will allow us to find, assess, and as a result, significantly reduce irrational budget expenditures, thus reducing the deficit and debt of government and municipal institutions in 2025 – adds the expert.

1. The BCC maintains a critical assessment of the Family 500+ (currently 800+) program, advocating that family support should include an income criterion. High-income families would then not benefit from the generous, public support, financed in part by taxes paid by low-income individuals.
2. The BCC’s position regarding the government’s logic of paying an additional annual benefit to all pensioners and disability pensioners, regardless of the amount of their benefits (so-called 13th pension), remains consistently critical. The Polish state, in its current situation, cannot afford a social benefits system paid out without considering the income criterion. Poor and low-income taxpayers should not subsidize those receiving high pensions and benefits.
3. According to the BCC, funding for the “Active Parent” program, amounting to PLN 8.4 billion in 2025, should also be limited by adopting income criteria. Lack of such criteria significantly inflates the budget expenditure for the “Active Parent” program and collides with the sense of social justice. Low-income families should not subsidize wealthy families, for whom an expenditure of 500 or 1500 zlotys is a small part of their monthly income, especially considering that in large cities – Krakow, Poznan or Warsaw – the average monthly salary amounts to several tens of thousands of zlotys.