The plan was unveiled by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Thursday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Coal price capped at PLN 2,000 per tonne
Meeting the media in the central town of Otwock, alongside Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin, Morawiecki announced: “Coal distributed by local governments will be sold to households for up to PLN 2,000 per tonne.”
Meanwhile, local governments will buy the coal for up to PLN 1,500 (EUR 312) per tonne, he told reporters.
Morawiecki added that, in addition to the PLN 2,000 price cap, “households are eligible for a PLN 1,000 (EUR 210) subsidy per tonne of coal, which is already being implemented.”
The prime minister also announced that “to ensure that absolutely everyone gets the coal, initially each household will be allowed to buy up to 2 tonnes” of the resource.
“In December or January, households will be entitled to buy an additional tonne or two of coal,” he added, as cited by the PAP news agency.
Morawiecki gave assurances that ships carrying imported coal were “on their way to Poland” and would continue to arrive also through December and January, making sure that coal would be available in the coming months.
Gov't to spend PLN 3 bn on coal subsidies
The prime minister said the government would spend PLN 3 billion (EUR 620 million) to subsidise coal purchases by local governments.
Meanwhile, Sasin, who is minister for state assets, said the government had already drawn up a bill to cap the price of coal to be bought by local governments at PLN 1,500 per tonne, and for households at PLN 2,000 per tonne.
"Hopefully the bill will be submitted to the Sejm [lower house of parliament] this week,” he said. “Time is of the essence.”
Sasin added that “by today, 1,120 local governments have declared they would like to distribute coal to households,” the PAP news agency reported.
In August, Poland introduced a one-off allowance of PLN 3,000 (EUR 620) for all families that use coal to heat their homes.
Thursday was day 232 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, money.pl