The official will be appointed by the country’s prime minister within six months under new regulations collectively known as a “constitution for business,” the businessinsider.com.pl website has reported.
It quoted a government official as saying that the business ombudsman’s job would be to help protect the rights of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The appointment of the new official will “guarantee the implementation of the principles of the constitution for business,” Mariusz Haładyj, a deputy minister for entrepreneurship and technology, has said, as quoted by the website.
The country’s lawmakers in January passed a package of regulations to help businesses by cutting red tape and making life easier for entrepreneurs.
The new regulations, drafted by the country’s conservative government and collectively referred to as a “constitution for business,” were later voted through by the upper house of the legislature and signed into law by President Andrzej Duda to take effect on April 30.
Whatever is not forbidden is permitted
The "constitution for business" aims to simplify procedures for people setting up and running their own businesses, according to government officials.
The new rules include a presumption of entrepreneurial honesty and a principle of friendly interpretation of regulations under which any doubts will be resolved in favour of the entrepreneur, officials have told Polish Radio’s IAR news agency, adding that a general rule in business will be that “everything which is not forbidden is allowed.”
The package is designed to allow small entrepreneurs to run a business without the need to register it if their monthly income is less than half the national minimum wage. This measure could benefit about 75,000 people, including those who provide services such as private tutoring, according to officials.
The aim is to reduce the unregistered, tax-evading segment of the economy where people receive undeclared cash payments, officials have previously said.
Start-up package
Budding businessmen will be given special start-up incentives by being exempted from paying social security contributions for the first six months. Later, for two years, they will be able to take advantage of more preferential treatment as part of the so-called “small social insurance” programme. Some 200,000 businesspeople will be able to benefit from this new measure every year, according to officials.
The government outlined plans for its “constitution for business” at a conference in the southeastern city of Rzeszów in November 2016.
In late October last year, Mateusz Morawiecki, the finance minister at the time and the main architect of the government's "constitution for business," said the programme would simplify the tax system to the tune of PLN 3.8 billion (EUR 900 million) in savings for businesses over 10 years, according to a report.
Morawiecki was in December appointed Poland's prime minister.
(gs/pk)
Source: businessinsider.com.pl