Poland: new water retention bill initiative
The Polish government is preparing new legislative space retention investments. Financing will be provided by owners of plots of more than 600 m2, which are developed on at least half of the area.
Special bill on water retention
The Polish Ministry of Maritime Economy has prepared a draft of a special bill aimed to prevent drought effects and flooding after sudden rains. It allows expropriation and acquisition of land for retention investments and the acceleration of issuing administrative decisions. The special act is to speed up the preparation for the investment by 180 days on average.
Thanks to the new regulations, it will also be easier to carry out retention projects in communes or in forests, as well as drainage projects, e.g. in agriculture, and even to build ponds or rain gardens.
Rain tax
Marytime Ministry plans to significantly increase the amount and circle of entities paying the so-called a fee for water services related to the loss of natural retention, commonly known as the rain tax. Currently, it is paid mainly by owners of real estate with an area of at least 3.5 thousand m2. Covered with concreate on at least 70% of the total surface. According to the new regulations, the fee will apply to owners of real estate with at least 600 m2, if they are half built-up. The amount of fees, just like now, will depend on whether and to what extent devices and structures in built-up areas allow for water retention (discharge into soil or its retention in the environment).
Costs
The total costs that property owners will have to pay for the loss of natural retention will amount to approximately PLN 1,350 per year per household.
In Poland, on average, 826 million cubic meters rainwater are stored in small, local retention facilities. It is about 1% of the total annual outflow of rain water in Poland. The Ministry would like to increase this percentage to 15%.
Taxation of smaller real estate’s causes a 20-fold increase in entities subject to the retention tax. Currently, it has to be paid by the owners of 6.9 thousand plots. The fee, which is received by Polish Waters, currently amounts to PLN 6.24 million, and to local governments less than PLN 700 thousand PLN per year. Increasing the circle of para-taxpayers and raising the rates will bring the beneficiaries PLN 180 million annually, which they will use for investments to mitigate the effects of drought and counteract flooding. From this amount, PLN 135 million will flow to Polish Waters.
Until now, local governments could get 10% of revenue from the fee, and now the rate will increase to 25% but a minimum of 20% municipalities must allocate this income to the retention of rainwater and snowmelt.
Source: Puls Biznesu