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Both revenues and spending are envisaged at 429.5 billion zloty
($109.40 billion), Morawiecki said.
"We present the balanced budget for the first time in 30 years,"
he told news conference. "We're reducing debt.
"And here's the main point - tax revenues were leaking to tax
havens in the billions of zlotys. This gap has been reduced
significantly," he said.
Robust economic growth and improved tax collection has kept
Poland's deficits low in recent years, despite substantial
welfare spending. Last year's deficit totaled 10.4 billion
zlotys.
Earlier, the newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported that the 2020
budget would benefit from the sale of mobile phone frequencies,
rights to carbon dioxide emissions and cash connected with the
country's pension reform. Taken together, those steps should
bring in 17.8 billion zloty.
Another 14.9 billion zloty will come from improvements in tax
collection and 5.2 billion zloty will come from changes to
social security system payments.
Higher alcohol taxes are expected to bring in 1.1 billion zloty,
a new tax for millionaires another 1.1 billion zloty and changes
to the ecological tax 1.4 billion.
Critics called the balanced budget plan a government ploy in a
campaign for parliamentary elections due on Oct. 13. They say
its assumptions are too optimistic in light of an expected
economic slowdown.
Despite scandals that plagued the PiS in recent weeks, it still
leads in opinion polls. Whether it could form a government -
alone or in a coalition - would depend on the mix of parties
that won seats in the elections.
(Reporting by Marcin Goclowski and Joanna Plucinska; editing by
Larry King)
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