Revenue Service to scrutinize thrifty spenders and trends reversed in Polish-Lithuanian cross-border shopping.
Presented by Slawek Szefs
DZIENNIK reports on a government proposed project to create a new database with information on Polish society on the basis of a national census to be conducted in 2011. Experts and civic organizations fear it might become the source of gaining unauthorized access to information by all kinds of ill wishers. The database would be stored by the Central Statistical Office (GUS) and would contain absolutely all crucial data concerning every Polish citizen… including sensitive personal information, for example, complete figures on income and its sources, loans and credits with bank names, payment of alimony or terms of insurance policies. For the first time pollsters would have the right to ask questions on church membership, sexual orientation or family plans. Providing various phone numbers and e-mail addresses would also be mandatory. The list is long and highly controversial to any member of a democratic society, claim opponents. A national census or widespread spying Orwellian style, asks the paper.
Dealing with a somehow related topic, RZECZPOSPOLITA devotes frontpage attention to Revenue Service plans of keeping a more watchful eye on big buyers, especially those who tend to spend far more than what their earnings seem to indicate. This is to be a clear signal to both individuals and companies that the time of crisis will not be conducive to moving any type of financial activity into the grey zone. If caught and proven guilty of hiding undocumented income, the penalty for tax evasion is 75 percent of the disclosed sum. Indeed, something to be reckoned with when buying not only a new house, but also luxury furniture, a grand vacation tour or a lavish set of jewelry for the Mrs.
GAZETA WYBORCZA looks at the latest changes in flow of shopping traffic with Lithuania. For the past years residents of Poland’s eastern borderland have been accustomed to journeying into nearby Lithuanian shops to buy primarily food articles for their tables and petrol for their cars. As of January, due to the spreading financial crisis and subsequent weakening of the Polish currency, this direction has been reversed. Another factor contributing to this change in preferences has been an almost fourfold rise in taxes on food produce in Lithuania. Polish shop owners in the region have welcomed the sudden influx of customers from across the border as this additional demand has become a remedy to dropping sales figures because of financial difficulties in Polish family budgets. What makes some happy, wipes the smile off the faces of others, in this case the Lithuanian tax authorities. The outflow of business to Polish sources has caused some 25 million euro in monthly revenue losses for the Lithuanian treasury.
As most papers today, SUPER EXPRESS pays tribute to the outstanding cardio surgeon and politician Zbigniew Religa, who passed away at 70 losing his two year battle with cancer. The professor was credited with the first successful heart transplant in Poland in 1985 and implanting the first artificial heart four years later. He was also an untiring champion of health service improvement, which led him to the post of national health minister a few years ago. Admired even by political opponents he was known for his devotion to patients’ needs and widely recognized for merits in advancing cardio surgery in Poland. The tabloid publishes reminiscences of Zbigniew Religa’s army of grateful patients given a second life and recalls his great dream of going on a fishing expedition to Africa… a dream the professor strongly believed in fulfilling till his very last days.