Speaking ahead of a European Council meeting in Brussels, Morawiecki told reporters on Wednesday he had discussed the planned tax decreases with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the bloc's Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni.
“In Poland as well as in the whole European Union, we are grappling with inflation,” Morawiecki said.
“To make our fight even more effective, I am persuading the EU to approve a decrease in VAT on fuels from 23 percent to 8 percent,” he added, as quoted by Poland's PAP news agency.
The cut would be made for the first half of next year, the government said.
Morawiecki told the media he had also "asked permission" to reduce VAT on food, "from 5 percent to 0 percent."
He said that, after his talks with von der Leyen and Gentiloni, he was "cautiously optimistic that we will achieve our objective of offering unprecedented tax cuts to suppress inflation and help Polish citizens.”
Morawiecki said in a Facebook post that his government had already reduced taxes on natural gas and electricity, where approval from Brussels was not required.
He added that the move "has created multi-billion savings for millions of Polish families."
Meanwhile, Poland will oppose plans to include household heating and transport in the EU’s CO2 emissions-trading system (ETS), Morawiecki told reporters in Brussels.
He also said that Warsaw would be seeking to ensure the EU permits the financing of gas-based and nuclear power plants under its new "Fit for 55" package, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Morawiecki on Wednesday called on the European Union to provide “generous assistance” to its post-Soviet neighbours covered by the bloc's Eastern Partnership programme.
Poland's Central Statistical Office (GUS) announced on Wednesday that year-on-year inflation in the country reached 7.8 percent in November.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, TVP Info