January 26, 2003	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 22,1423

WARSAW, Jan 25: Poland’s Finance Ministry is considering the introduction a 20 per cent tax on capital gains at the beginning of 2004, the Rzeczpospolita daily reported on Saturday.

The brokerage community and the Warsaw Stock Exchange had asked the government to delay the introduction of the tax, which analysts fear would be another nail in the coffin of an already ailing Polish bourse.

But the leftist government, seeking to boost state revenues to keep the budget deficit from swelling, had said it would not prolong the tax exemption period into 2004.

Under its privatization scheme, the government plants to float minority stakes in some of the biggest state-owned companies by 2005, including national airlines PLL LOT and the country’s largest insurer PZU.

The sale of state saving giant PKO BP, planned this year, might also be delayed into 2004.—Reuters