The United Right government, in a situation where central bank interest rates and, as a result, interest rates on loans at commercial banks rose, decided the so-called borrowing holidays for borrowers who took out bank debt to buy their first apartment.
The law providing such a possibility was introduced in the spring of 2022 and allowed a maximum of seven months of credit holidays: three months in 2022 and another four months in 2023. In this situation, the government of Prime Minister Morawiecki a few weeks ago, has sent a bill to the Marshal’s staff to extend credit holidays for 2024 due to the fact that interest rates on loans remain at a higher level, despite the fact that the Monetary Policy Council, due to a drop in inflation, by as much as 12% has fallen. points interest rates, reduced the base interest rate by 1 percentage point.
According to the justification for the bill, about 1.1 million home loan borrowers took advantage of the loan waivers, while 1.7 million took advantage of such loans. The government’s bill on credit holidays provides the opportunity to benefit from 4 months of credit holidays in 2024 (1 month in each quarter of this year), but for borrowers of loans up to PLN 400,000 there are no changes in the proposed solutions compared to those of force in 2023. However, for borrowers who used a loan of more than PLN 400,000. PLN and below PLN 800,000, an income criterion is introduced. To benefit from loan exemptions, the borrower’s costs associated with repaying the loan must exceed 50%. total income of his household. It should be remembered that the costs of credit holidays are borne directly by the banks that provide such loans, and only indirectly by the state budget, because these additional burdens reduce the banks’ profits and, accordingly, the payment of income taxes and bank taxes.
The new coalition majority that is forming in the Sejm has drafted its own bill on loan liberalization, but it turned out that this is only a symbolic support for home loan holders, because in practice it will only allow 50 to 60,000 such would cover loans. In this situation, more than 1 million existing home loan beneficiaries who have taken advantage of loan exemptions would “go without” because the criteria created in the bill by the new parliamentary majority have been set in such a way that they exclude them from this form of assistance. It is an extremely strange approach that politicians from Platform, Ruch Hołownia, PSL and Left are willing to defend the interests of the banking sector, whose net profits in the January-September period this year are four times higher than in the same period. last year (almost PLN 21 billion in 2023 compared to PLN 5.5 billion in 2022) than the interests of young people who bought their first apartment with a loan.
Marshal Hołownia sent both projects back to the Public Finance Committee for first reading. After two weeks, the chairman of the Platform committee placed them on the agenda of yesterday’s meeting, but canceled the meeting a few hours before the date, without making any announcement. rode. Moreover, the loan holiday project prepared by the emerging majority was withdrawn yesterday, as if the parliamentarians who signed it were ashamed of it after its details became known. There is also no fixed date for the first reading of the government bill, which is in committee despite the fact that time is running out, because when the bill is passed by the Sejm and then by the Senate, the president would also have to extend the deadline shorten. He has 21 days to respond to Parliament’s submission. All this should be completed by December 31 so that banks can prepare their systems to submit applications on this issue electronically.
Unfortunately, everything indicates that the emerging parliamentary majority, represented by Marshal Hołownia, will lead to the credit exemption law not being adopted and approximately 1.1 million borrowers using this solution will be abandoned by 2024.
Source: wPolityce