Poland's Ministry of Energy has issued a notice setting maximum retail prices for liquid fuels, effective for Sunday 1 November and Monday 2 November, according to INFOR.PL. The government says the caps bring pump prices down by roughly 1.20 to 1.30 zloty per litre depending on the fuel type. Energy Minister Miłosz Motyka called the published rates a substantial reduction and said the limits will be updated and released every day.
Why it matters
The notice is the first concrete output of the third instalment of the government's CPN anti-price-shock package, which relies on a tax on extraordinary fuel profits rather than direct administrative price-setting. For drivers, it is the first time in months that the ceiling at the pump is fixed in advance and published publicly. For the government, it is a test of whether the mechanism can hold prices down without disrupting supply — a charge Motyka has levelled at alternative approaches he described as risky experiments that could destabilise the market and leave stations without fuel.
What the ministry published, and what comes next
According to INFOR.PL, the notice lists upper limits for individual grades including Pb95, Pb98 and diesel, and compares them with the previous notice issued for Friday 30 October. The next notice is due around midday on 2 November and will set the caps for 3 November. Motyka said the figures match earlier government pledges and confirmed that the CPN package is designed to pass tax reductions through to station prices. He also said fuel can now be bought for 1.30 to 1.40 zloty less than before the new stage of the programme took effect.
The minister was careful not to promise that the decline would continue. He pointed to global fuel prices as the product of a volatile geopolitical situation, saying nobody can reliably forecast where they will go in the coming days, weeks or months. He also listed fuel exports to Europe and possible restocking as factors that could push prices back up, and urged caution in reading the current level as a trend.
Sales steady, border traffic under review
Motyka said the launch of the third CPN stage has not produced a sharp jump in fuel sales. Weekend volumes were higher than a few days earlier, he said, but not at a level that would threaten supply. The ministry plans to spend the coming days examining sales in border regions to see whether so-called fuel tourism is taking place — drivers crossing into Poland to fill up on cheaper fuel. He added that neighbouring countries have signalled they are considering their own support packages, which he said should ease price pressure and reduce the incentive to cross borders for fuel.
The president's signature and the dispute behind it
The mechanism became possible after President Karol Nawrocki signed the windfall tax bill, which was published in the Journal of Laws on Thursday evening. Motyka said the finance ministry began drafting the implementing regulations immediately after the bill reached the Government Legislation Centre, and that the notice was issued so the lower prices could apply nationwide from the following day.
Motyka said Nawrocki signed because he yielded to pressure from Polish drivers, and argued that had the president signed the July version of the tax bill, drivers would have been paying less for weeks. The president had sent an earlier bill on the same tax to the Constitutional Tribunal in August for preventive review, citing constitutional concerns, and that law never took effect. In his Thursday address, Nawrocki said he had signed the new act and expected immediate reductions at stations, while announcing he would refer it to the Tribunal for subsequent review. He repeated his constitutional objections and criticised the government's record on fuel costs, recalling campaign pledges of petrol at 5.19 zloty per litre and arguing that the prime minister had promised a simple VAT cut but now hides behind legislation instead.
Motyka rejected the characterisation of the CPN package as an intervention against business, describing it as a proven mechanism grounded in market operation. He said financing for the programme through the end of the year is secure.
The next marker is the notice due around noon on 2 November, which will show whether the caps for 3 November hold at current levels or move with global prices.
