This year the budget appears safe, but the deficit seems set to increase

Despite the lower than planned revenues from personal income tax (PIT), overall income to the budget is not under threat. According to analysts and Finance Ministry representatives, this is thanks to higher revenues from company taxes. However, analysts from the Institute for Market Economy Research believe that the public debt will nonetheless continue to increase for the next few years to levels which are dangerous for the economy and forbidden by the constitution. Institute director, Wojciech Misiag, criticized the slow pace of privatization and called for changes to the way PIT works. Misiag believes that the present system makes planning budget revenues a highly unprecise affair, as it is impossible to predict levels of over or underpayments. He called on the government to spread such payments in installments, as is the case in France. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 8) M.K.