Firms to be penalized for EU market entry?

Companies intending to operate on EU markets as VAT-payers will be required to spend zł. 400,000 on a guarantee deposit, reads one of the proposals in the bill concerning goods and services taxes, prepared by the Finance Ministry to come into force when Poland enters the Union on May 1, 2004. The proposal is opposed by the Ministry of Economics, Labor and Social Policy and by entrepreneurs' organizations.The latter claim that only a handful of firms can afford to freeze such a large sum. (www.onet.pl) K.Ż.