Nawrocki blocks windfall tax on fuel companies, stalling 4 billion PLN for Polish drivers

The blocked tax

On 25 July 2026 President Karol Nawrocki referred the windfall tax on liquid fuel sales to the Constitutional Tribunal for preventive control, a move that in practice blocks the levy because the tribunal is paralysed by internal conflicts and illegally appointed judges. The 60% tax was to apply to extraordinary profits earned by fuel companies between March and December 2026, but only on margins above previously forecast levels. The finance ministry had estimated the levy would bring in around 4 billion PLN for the state budget, earmarked to fund a renewed fuel-price relief programme.

Nawrocki argued the law violates the constitutional ban on retroactive legislation, since it would tax profits realised from March while the law was not due to take effect until August. "This is an attempt to tax activity retroactively, the law does not operate backwards," he said. The Polish Organisation of Oil Industry and Trade had earlier warned that retroactive taxation would set a dangerous precedent.

How the CPN programme and oil prices shaped the debate

The tax was designed to replenish budget coffers after the 'Cena Paliw Niżej' (CPN) programme, which from late March to the end of June 2026 slashed VAT on fuel from 23% to 8% and cut excise duties. That programme cost the state between 4.7 billion and 4.8 billion PLN. When CPN expired in June, pump prices surged toward 8 PLN per litre as Brent crude, pushed by the US-Iran conflict, climbed from roughly $70 per barrel in February to $115 in May before settling near $100 in late July.

With household budgets under strain, calls to reintroduce CPN grew louder. Yet the government pointed to a budget deficit already above 6% of GDP and public debt breaching the constitutional 60%-of-GDP ceiling, making a new relief package fiscally difficult without the windfall tax proceeds. Critics also noted that the original CPN programme helped all consumers indiscriminately and offered little relief to transport companies, since the excise cut barely reduced their net fuel costs.

Political fallout

Prime Minister Donald Tusk reacted sharply on X, calling Nawrocki's decision "shocking" and telling voters to remember it when they next fill their tanks.

Shocking decision by Karol Nawrocki. He blocked a law that allowed taxing the giant profits of fuel companies, which would have financed cheaper fuel at our stations (the CPN programme). Remember this at the pumps.

Finance Minister Andrzej Domański went further, accusing the president of siding with fuel companies and dealing another blow to public finances.

President Nawrocki blocked another 4 billion PLN for Poland's budget. These were funds meant to finance the CPN package protecting Poles from high fuel prices. Instead of standing with Poles, he stood with fuel companies making huge profits from the current fuel market situation. By sending the law to the Constitutional Tribunal, whose functioning he himself had earlier paralysed, he once again struck at Polish public finances.

The president countered that the 60% tax rate could simply be passed on to consumers, inflating costs for drivers, farmers and transport firms, and that his action was a preventive constitutional review rather than a veto.

What happens next

With the Constitutional Tribunal unable to convene, the windfall tax remains stalled indefinitely. The government lacks the 4 billion PLN it had counted on to relaunch CPN, leaving motorists facing pump prices that hover near 8 PLN per litre. The standoff also hands Tusk a political tool: whenever the opposition attacks the government over fuel costs, the prime minister can point to the presidential palace and the blocked levy. For now, fuel companies' windfall profits remain untouched.