Nawrocki sends fuel windfall tax to constitutional review, Tusk calls move ‘shocking’

Decision

On Friday 24 July, President Karol Nawrocki sent the bill introducing a tax on extraordinary profits from the sale of liquid fuels to the Constitutional Tribunal in a preventive review. The move blocks the law from taking effect until the tribunal rules. The tax was designed to capture surplus earnings of fuel companies generated between March and December 2026 at a rate of 60% of the taxable base. Parliament had passed the legislation, and it was scheduled to enter force in August.

The law is to come into force in August, but the tax would cover income earned from the beginning of March. This means an attempt to tax activity with retroactive force.

Nawrocki invoked the principle "Lex retro non agit" (law does not act backwards) and said he could not sign a law with serious constitutional doubts. He also warned that the 60 percent levy would ultimately be passed on to consumers: fuel station customers, farmers, hauliers, small businesses and households buying food.

Government reaction

Prime Minister Donald Tusk responded on Saturday morning via X, calling the decision shocking and accusing the president of blocking cheaper fuel. The government had planned to use the anticipated 4 billion PLN (about EUR 920 million) in revenue to fund a CPN price-shield programme at petrol stations.

Shocking decision by President Karol Nawrocki. He blocked a bill that allowed taxing the gigantic profits of fuel corporations, thanks to which cheaper fuel could have been financed at our stations (CPN programme). Remember this at the pumps.

Finance and Economy Minister Andrzej Domański had already reacted on Friday evening. He stated that the president’s referral deprived the state budget of 4 billion PLN earmarked for protections against high fuel prices and that Nawrocki sided with the fuel corporations instead of with Poles.

Presidential counteroffensive

Pawel Szefernaker, head of the President’s Cabinet, replied the same day. He called Tusk an economic dilettante and argued that imposing a new tax on fuels would not lower prices, but would instead be passed on to drivers.

It has long been known that the current prime minister is an economic dilettante. Now he tries to convince Poles that imposing a new tax on fuels will make prices at stations fall. Instead of adding new taxes, please lower VAT and excise, as the Law and Justice government did. That really lowers prices and does not shift further costs onto drivers.

Szefernaker added that President Nawrocki had protected Poles from solutions that could lead to record petrol and diesel prices.

Constitutional argument

Minister Maciej Berek, responsible for oversight of government policy implementation, challenged the retroactivity objection. He argued that a tax on extraordinary profits by its nature can only concern past situations because profits are determined after a period has elapsed.

Apparently someone in the Presidential Chancellery gave poor advice in this matter. Such a law by its essence can only concern a past situation, since profits are established after a certain time has passed. The expectation that such provisions should operate only for the future is a misunderstanding.

Berek also noted that the bill’s constitutionality had been checked by the Government Legislation Centre and the legal services of both the Sejm and the Senate, hinting that the president’s move was not about constitutional values but about depriving the budget of revenue.

Stakes

With the law now pending before a Constitutional Tribunal that both sides acknowledge is paralysed, the 4 billion PLN in projected receipts will not flow into the CPN programme. Fuel corporations keep their extraordinary profits for the period from March to December 2026. The political row leaves consumers without the promised price cushion and deepens the open confrontation between the president and the government.