50% tax bracket vote in by Sejm. Initiative passes to Senate

All political parties, except the Civic Platform (PO) and the Conservative Liberal Party (SKL), were in favor of the bill. If the bill is accepted by the Senate, which is highly probable and then signed by the President, the new tax rate will come into life from January 1, 2005. "Friday's vote may be a sign that Parliament is changing its tax policy. For the last few years taxes have been gradually lowered and the taxation system was simplified. Now we took a step back," commented Paweł Gieryński, the head of Copernicus Finance. "This is just another demogogic and populist move," said Wojciech Kruk, the head of W. Kruk's supervisory board. (Parkiet, p. 2; Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 4, 5) A.F.