SUMMARY
INFORMATION SHEET ON AID MEASURES IN FORCE ON 1st MAY 2004
(EXISTING AID)
1. GENERAL
ASPECTS
Country:
Poland
Title of the aid measure
(English):
State aid in the form of
sureties and guarantees granted by the State Treasury.
Title of the aid measure
(Original language):
Pomoc publiczna w formie gwarancji i poręczeń
udzielanych przez Skarb Państwa.
Legal basis (precise
reference):
- Act
of 8 May 1997 on sureties and guarantees granted by the State Treasury and by
certain legal persons (Journal of Laws of 2003 No 174, item 1689 - as amended)
(enclosure No 1),
- Ordinance
of the Council of Ministers of 20 February 2003 on granting by State Treasury of
sureties and guarantees and commission fees from sureties and guarantees
(Journal of Laws of 2003, No 41 item 348, as amended) (enclosure No 2),
Ministry or other
administrative body responsible for the measure and its implementation:
Ministry of Finance;
Person(s) to contact:
Agata Mazurkiewicz,
telephone number: 48 22 55 60
144
e-mail: amazurkiewicz@uokik.gov.pl
Level at which the measure
is administered (central government, regional, other)?
Central Government, regional
and local authorities, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego
When did the measure enter
into effect?
8/05/1997 - the date of entry
into force of the Act on sureties and guarantees granted by the State Treasury
and by certain legal persons;
What is the duration of
the measure (expiry date)?
Unlimited duration;
2. DESCRIPTION
OF THE MEASURE
Which transport sector is
eligible (rail, aviation, maritime, etc.)?
The whole transport sector is
eligible;
What are the main aim(s)
and objectives of the aid?
The main aim of the measure
is improvement of creditability of beneficiaries undertaking investment
projects.
A precondition for the
issuance of a surety or a guaranty is that the credit covered by the surety or
guaranty is designed to finance investment projects, which ensure:
1) development or maintenance
of infrastructure,
2) development of exports of
goods and services,
3) environment protection,
4) creation of new jobs
associated with a specific investment project within the framework of regional
aid,
5) implementation of new
technical or technological solutions resulting from research and development
projects;
6) restructuring of
enterprises.
A surety or guarantee may
also be issued provided that the credits covered by it shall be appropriated
for:
1) financing of purchase of
materials or finished products earmarked for execution of tasks involving
production of capital goods for export, of a contractual value exceeding EUR
10,000,000;
2) crediting funds
established by virtue of separate laws, in Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, if
funds appropriated for repayment of the credit originate from sources other
than the state budget, excluding state budget funds spent on subsidies to
interest on preferential credits;
3) creation of credit lines
by banks in order to:
a) finance investment
projects of local self-government units and of small and medium-sized
entrepreneurs,
b) co-financing of aid
programmes or projects within the framework of aid programmes of the European
Union;
4) repayment of credits
already covered by the State Treasury surety or guarantee, together with
interest thereon and with other costs directly involved with that credit - may
be issued only once.
The sureties or guarantees
may be issued also for the fulfilment of the issuer's provision of monetary
consideration with respect to issued bonds, provided that the funds obtained
from the issue of bonds are appropriated for the a.m. purposes.
Form of the measure
(scheme, ad hoc, individual)
Scheme;
What are the instruments
(or forms) of aid?
Guarantees and sureties;
For each instrument of aid
please give a short description of the conditions applying to the instrument.
1. The Council of Ministers
on request of the Minister of Finance, or the Minister of Finance himself may,
on behalf of the State Treasury, issue sureties or guarantees of repayment of
all or part of a bank credit together with interest thereon and with other
costs directly involved with that credit;
2. The Minister of Finance
may issue sureties or guarantees, if the amount of a surety or guarantee
exceeds an equivalent of EUR 5,000,000 however the Council of Ministers may
issue a surety or guarantee up to the amount higher with respect to projects
of special significance to the national economy;
3. The Council of Ministers
issues sureties or guarantees, if the amount of a surety or guarantee exceeds
an equivalent of EUR 30,000,000.
4. The legal persons -
entities other than banks or insurance companies, which are authorised
pursuant to separate regulations to issue sureties or guarantees within the
scope of governmental tasks entrusted to them or within the scope of their
business:
a) state legal persons
established by virtue of law,
b) commercial law companies
in which the State Treasury holds more than 50 % of the share capital,
c) co-operatives in which the
shares of the State Treasury exceed 50 % of the share fund,
d) legal persons in which the
shares of entities held by the State Treasury or legal persons referred to in
letters a) - c) exceed 50% of the share capital, or of the share fund,
e) foundations in which legal
persons referred to in letters a) - c) act as founders;
may issue sureties and
guarantees up to 60% of the value of their equity (capital) specified at the
end of an accounting year preceding the issuance of the surety or guaranty,
provided that the amount of a surety or a guaranty issued for a single entity
may not exceed 20% of the value of their equity (capital). The Minister of
Finance may grant approval for the issue of sureties and guarantees in an
amount higher than the one specified above, or determine, otherwise than
specified above, the admissible total amount of sureties and guaranties to be
issued and the admissible amount of a surety or a guaranty to be issued for
obligations of a specified entity.
5. Bank Gospodarstwa
Krajowego may issue a surety or guarantee if the amount thereof does not
exceed the equivalent of EUR 5,000,000.
The issuance of surety or
guarantee shall be subject to filing an application for surety or guarantee,
containing data that allow to carry out the analysis of the risk of payment by
the State Treasury on account of issued sureties and guarantees. The
application should be attached by documents confirming data contained in the
application, including certificates issued by appropriate authorities,
concerning the performance of public legal duties by entities whose
liabilities are to be covered by surety or guarantee. The application should
contain:
- information on the
subject, amount and period of validity of requested surety or guarantee as
well as grounds for the request, together with information on actions
undertaken by borrower in order to obtain the funds and on possible
difficulties in their obtaining,
- general information on the
borrower together with the structure of assets, information on partners and
shareholders, experience of management staff, description of carried out
activity, as well as names and addresses of banks, which keep current accounts
of the borrower;
The request for surety or
guarantee should be accompanied among others by:
- borrower's
balance sheet, profit and loss account, cash flow as for the last day of the
month preceding the request and for the last accounting year, and in case when
the activity is carried out for less than 3 years - for all reporting periods
- declaration
of borrower on existing debts, liabilities on fixed assets and pending
judicial and administrative proceedings, which may influence the financial
situation of borrower,
- feasibility
study for the enterprise (business plan), to which the requested surety or
guarantee is related, together with forecast of economic and financial
situation of the borrower in the period of its performance, and during the
period of realisation of obligation covered by surety or guarantee, including:
balance forecast, forecast of profits and losses, forecast of cash flow
account, expenses connected with the realisation of the enterprise and sources
of its financing, as well as plan of crediting of the enterprise,
- certificates
of competent fiscal organs concerning meeting by borrower of fiscal
obligations,
- opinion
of the bank - lender concerning economic and financial situation of the
borrower, rating of the enterprise, to which surety or guarantee will relate,
as well as viability of granting of surety or guarantee,
- conditional
credit facility agreement, and in case of credit or loan granted by lender or
borrower, which is non-resident - draft credit facility agreement or loan
facility agreement, together with determination of amount and periods for
repayment of particular installments of credit or loan and interest,
- declaration
of borrower on conformity with truth of data contained in the request.
A surety or guarantee shall
not be issued, if the analysis of the risk of payment by the State Treasury
indicates that the entity whose obligations are to be covered by the surety or
guarantee is not in a position to fulfil these obligations.
The surety and guarantee
shall be granted for a fixed period of time and up to the amount determined
beforehand. In case of a surety or guarantee granted to an international
finance institution the Republic of Poland is a member of or has signed a
co-operation agreement with, the Council of Ministers, on request of the
Minister of Finance, may depart from the requirement referred to in the first
sentence.
The effectiveness of a surety
or guarantee shall be subject to payment of a commission fee on a surety or
guarantee. The commission fee shall be levied on the amount of the obligation
covered by the surety or guarantee, and in the case of sureties and guarantees
granted subject to appropriation of the credit or funds obtained from the
issue of bonds for repayment of credits already covered by a State Treasury
surety or guaranty, together with interest thereon and with other costs
directly involved with that credit - on the amount of the increase in the
State Treasury obligation, being the difference between the amount of the
obligation covered by the surety or guarantee, and the amount of the existing
obligation under the granted surety or guarantee. The way of levying and
collection of the commission fee on surety or guarantee and the level of this
fee is specified in the Ordinance of the Council of Ministers dated 20
February 2003 on granting by State Treasury of sureties and guarantees and
commission fees from sureties and guarantees (Journal of Laws of 10 March
2003)
Budget: give the overall
budget made available for the measure (in local currency and Euros).
Budget is prepared annually
for sureties and guarantees granted by State Treasury in the budget law and
covers limit of sureties and guarantees granted by State Treasury for all
sectors. In case of sureties and guarantees granted by Bank Gospodarstwa
Krajowego there is not specified overall budget. The amount on sureties and
guarantees depends on the amount of money collected by the National Credit
Guarantee Fund.
Is the budget adopted
annually? If yes, what is the average annual budget?
YES. Maximum amounts for the
sureties and guarantees set in the budget law for all sectors are:
2002 - PLN 29 000 000 000,
EUR 6 484 069 000
2003 - 23 000 000 000 PLN,
EUR 5 142 537 000
2004 - 17 000 000 000 PLN,
EUR 3 801 006 000*
* average foreign exchange rate announced by the National
Bank of Poland prevailing as at the 20th August 2004 (Tabela
kursów nr 163/A/NBP/2004 z dnia 2004-08-20) - 1 EUR
= 4.4725 PLN;
Specify the eligible
beneficiaries (i.a. their character and estimated number).
All potential beneficiaries
conducting economic activity in all sectors including transport sector;
Is the aid available on
non-discriminatory basis, open to all potential beneficiaries, irrespective of
nationality?
Yes;
What are the eligible
costs?
1. Amount of credit, interest
due on this amount and other costs directly related to the credit.
2. In case of sureties or
guaranties for the fulfilment of the issuer's provision of monetary
consideration with respect to issued bonds the surety or guarantee may cover
either the value of the issued bonds or incidental payments, or both.
What is the maximum aid
intensity?
1. In case of sureties and
guarantees granted by the State Treasury, they may be granted up to 60% of the
principal balance to be repaid for which the surety or guarantee has been
granted and up to 60% of interest due on this amount and other costs directly
related to the credit. The Council of Ministers may grant the surety or
guarantee up to the amount exceeding the amount mentioned above in the case of
projects of special significance to the national economy.
- In case of sureties and
guarantees granted by Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego the aid intensity is
specified in § 3 of the Agreement concluded on 12 March 2002 between the
Treasury represented by the Minister of Finance and Bank Gospodarstwa
Krajowego - consolidated text of 30 May 2002.
Specify the criteria
according to which the amount of aid and/or the aid intensity has been
calculated.
As above;
Does the measure provide
"operating aid"? If "Yes", please provide details.
In principle, the measure
does not provide "operating aid";
If the measure relates to
services of general economic interest or public service obligations, please
specify by what means this task has been entrusted to the undertaking and how
compensation is calculated.
No;
May the aid in question be
cumulated with any other aid measures in operation and if so, does the measure
contain provisions limiting the cumulation of aid?
Yes, the measure in question
may be cumulated with other aid measures. The Act of 8 May 1997 on sureties and
guarantees granted by the State Treasury and by certain legal persons does not
contain any provisions limiting the cumulation of aid.
Does the aid measure fall
within existing exemption regulations or guidelines? If so, please specify.
On the basis of the measure may
be granted support for various aims. Some of the granted sureties and guarantees
are designed to finance investment projects related to development and
modernisation of infrastructure, access to which is equal for the benefit of all
operators concerned. In this case they do not constitute State aid in the
meaning of Article 87 of the EC Treaty.
The existing exemption
regulations or guidelines within which the aid measures fall depend on the
financed undertaking, for example sureties and guarantees granted as
restructuring aid fall under the following acts:
Community Guidelines on State
aid for rescuing and restructuring firms in difficulty (Official Journal C
288, 09.10.1999, p. 0002-0018),
-
Regulation (EEC) No 1107/70 of the Council of 4 June 1970 on the granting of
aids for transport by rail, road and inland waterway (Official Journal L 130,
15.06.1970, pages 0001-0003, as amended) - Article 3d - until the entry into
force of Community rules on access to the transport market.
The measure includes also
sureties and guarantees which fulfil conditions excluding existence of State aid
set in chapter 4 of Commission Notice on the application of Articles 87 and 88
of the EC Treaty to State aid in the form of guarantees (Official Journal C 71,
11.03.2000, p. 14-18).
Enclosures:
1. The Act of 8 May 1997 on
sureties and guarantees granted by the State Treasury and by certain legal
persons (Journal of Laws of 2003 No 174, item 1689 - as amended),
2. Ordinance of the Council of
Ministers of 20 February 2003 on granting by State Treasury of sureties and
guarantees and commission fees from sureties and guarantees (Journal of Laws of
2003, No 41 item 348, as amended)
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