Fines are advanced up. The government wants the minimum punishment to emergence from PLN 100 to PLN 1000.
The fines for crimes in Poland were set in 1997, almost 30 years ago. At the time the minimum remuneration was PLN 406 gross. presently it is PLN 4806 gross, i.e. more than 10 times more. This is 1 of the arguments cited by the ruling, justifying the request for change.
Financial penalties for crimes, or alleged fines, are determined by the court. They shall be calculated on the basis of regular rates, the amount of which depends on the earnings and material situation of the individual punished. The courts most frequently fine between 10 and 540 regular units.
Currently, the minimum value of 1 regular rate is PLN 10 and the maximum value is PLN 2000. This means that the lowest fine may amount to PLN 100 and the highest PLN 1.08 million.
However, this may shortly change significantly. The bill's draft amendment, which is included in the list of the Government Legislative Centre, provides for an increase of the minimum and maximum regular rates of 900%. After the fresh rules came into force, the minimum regular rate would be PLN 100 and the maximum would be PLN 20 thousand. In practice, this would mean that the lowest fine would increase to PLN 1000, and the highest would increase to PLN 10.8 million.
