Poland Gas Tax Sees Full Share for Government

Profits from shale gas production in Poland may be shared fifty-fifty.

Poland's Deputy Finance Minister has suggested that the state will be satisfied with the taxation level of around 50%.

"The levy together with the corporate tax would presumably weigh on the companies' profits comparably to the mining tax, standing at around 50 percent of profits." - said Maciej Grabowski to Reuters.

"We want be ready with our proposal in the first half of 2012" - he added, confirming announcements made late last year.

In November, Grabowski declared that the government fully appreciated industry's view that the tax system should be drafted quickly. At that time he announced a first draft of new hydrocarbon regulations would be ready in Q2 2012 in order to facilitate investment decisions.

The Deputy Finance Minister also underlined that that there`s no urgency to put regulation into effect, as the industrial scale production of shale gas is not expected before 2015.