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Dr hab. Małgorzata Ofiarska
ORCID: 0000-0001-5311-0201

Dr hab. Małgorzata Ofiarska, prof. US

Hab. PhD, Professor of University of Szczecin, An employee of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Szczecin. She specializes in administrative law, local government law and administrative enforcement proceedings.

 
DOI: 10.33226/0137-5490.2024.1.1
JEL: G21, H53, H54, H81

The catalog of instruments to support municipal housing construction has been supplemented since 1 December 2022, with bonuses and grants provided by the Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego. The purpose of these new support instruments is to provide additional subsidies for projects aimed at improving the technical condition of the municipal housing stock (MZG). The qualification of applications for bonuses and grants is carried out using banking procedures, but support in these forms is nonrefundable. Public funds is the source of the subsidy provided. The purpose of the article is to analyze and evaluate the legal regulations on the granting of bonuses and grants by the BGK and to determine the legal nature of the instruments of support for investments carried out in the municipal housing resources. The hypothesis about the significant similarity of bonuses and grants to targeted grants was verified. Due to the statutorily defined order of application of various support instruments, it was shown that bonuses and grants are supplementary forms of financing projects carried out in the municipal housing resources. The first quantitative and value effects achieved so far in this regard can be the basis for very cautious assessments of the effectiveness of bonuses and grants in solving problems that have been accumulating in the area of municipal housing for many years.

Keywords: municipal housing stock; subsidies; bonuses and grants; technical condition of municipal buildings
DOI: 10.33226/0137-5490.2023.6.1
JEL: G21, H53, H54, H76, H81

The execution of infrastructural projects necessary for the implementation of housing investments by local government units (LGUs) may be co-financed from the Subsidy Fund administered by Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego. Several changes to the legislation, initiated from 1 April 2021, are intended to create conditions for intensifying the activities of local government units in the area of municipal housing construction. One of the used support instruments is to co-finance part of the costs of technical and social infrastructure related to housing construction. The aim of the article is to analyze and evaluate the legal regulations defining the legal status and the rules for providing such support. The established lack of specific results from the two-year period of application of the provisions of the amended Act on financial support for certain housing projects justified the negative verification of the hypothesis about the useful impact of the new legal regulations on the increased interest in local government units' execution of infrastructural projects that accompanied housing investments. The study uses the dogmatic and legal method, supplemented by an analysis of the achievements of the doctrine and jurisprudence, as well as announcements of BGK on the support provided from the Subsidy Fund.

Keywords: local government; housing construction; Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego; co-financing; Subsidy Fund
DOI: 10.33226/0137-5490.2023.1.2
JEL: H81, K32, Q42, Q4

Improving air quality is an important goal for every country. For this purpose, various instruments can be used to support investors implementing ecological projects. In Poland, the catalog of such instruments was supplemented with the Ecological Surety and Guarantee Fund, established by law and entrusted to service by Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego from 1.01.2021. It provides sureties and guarantees for the repayment of loans granted by commercial banks for ecological investments for the purpose of limiting the negative effects of emissions from heating systems used in single-family houses. The aim of this article is to analyze and evaluate the legal regulations defining the legal position and principles of operation of the Ecological Surety and Guarantee Fund. It has been shown that the fund enables the parallel use of private and public law instruments for supporting environmental investments. At the same time, activities of some units of the public finance sector, banks and government administration bodies are integrated around these projects. The Fund may constitute a significant supplement to the activities of a systemic nature aimed at more effective implementation of the Government Program "Clean Air". The effects obtained in the first year of operation of this fund are very modest, but the causes for this situation do not have to be solely related to the applicable legal regulations. The very unfavorable market situation, including high inflation, an increase in loan servicing costs and current expenses burdening households may be related to little interest in the banks' offer in terms of loans for environmental investments. As a result, the resources of the fund dedicated to securing the return of such loans in the form of sureties and guarantees cannot be fully used.

Keywords: government program "Clean Air"; environmental investments; bank loans; sureties and guarantees
DOI: 10.33226/0137-5490.2022.8.2
JEL: G21, H53, H81, K39

defined subjective and objective boundaries using methods appropriate for banking activities. It is a program of supporting the development of social rental housing, its significant part is dedicated to people with moderate incomes who are not interested in satisfying their housing needs by acquiring the ownership right to housing units. The aim of the article is to analyze and to evaluate the legal regulations regarding the repayable financing mechanism of the so-called investment and construction projects carried out by social housing initiatives, housing associations and municipal companies. The legal structure of the repayable financing mechanism, uses the form of a loan granted on preferential terms, relating primarily to the principles of its interest rate and the repayment period. The quantitative and quality effects achieved in the middle of the 10-year implementation period of this program confirm that the legislator's intervention in the construction of the repayable financing mechanism was justified and resulted in an increase in investors' interest. Maintaining this trend requires, however, further improvement of legal regulations, which constitute an important element of the National Housing Program adopted in 2016. 

Keywords: government program; social housing construction; investment and construction project; loan; preferences
DOI: 10.33226/0137-5490.2021.11.3
JEL: K32, H77, H81, Q42

The amendment to the provisions of the Act on supporting thermomodernisation and renovations made on April 12, 2020 significantly extends the scope of application of the thermomodernisation bonus, which is an instrument to support investments resulting in a reduction in thermal energy demand in residential buildings. The most important changes to the legislation consist in resigning from some of the existing restrictions on the amount of the bonus, introducing the possibility of increasing the bonus for the installation of renewable energy micro-installations in buildings and additional financial support for works performed in the external walls of large-panel buildings. The study includes a detailed analysis of legal regulations and their assessment relating to the needs as well as legal and financial consequences of granting thermomodernisation bonuses in the changed legal standing. It has been shown that the thermomodernisation bonus plays a special role in promoting pro-ecological investments, and its legal status is determined by the close relations with bank loans granted for the implementation of thermomodernisation projects, the source of financing the bonus from the Thermomodernisation and Renovation Fund supplied from the state budget and the goals of thermomodernisation investments aimed at reducing the demand for energy produced from traditional sources with a negative impact on the natural environment. It was found that the thermomodernisation bonus can be an important instrument to motivate owners and managers of residential buildings, local heating networks and local heat sources to take pro-ecological actions.

Keywords: thermal energy; investment and thermomodernisation bonus; bank loan; residential buildings
DOI: 10.33226/0137-5490.2021.5.4
JEL: K34, H24, H32, H71

The Act on supporting new investments, in force since mid-2018, and amended several times, has significantly changed the conditions for supporting investors, in comparison to investments carried out in special economic zones. Both forms of support can be used concurrently, even in relation to the same entrepreneur who invests in different areas, i.e. in a special economic zone and in another legally separated area. The purpose of this article is to analyze and assessed legal regulations which determine the issuance of a decision on support and the application of the support instrument in the form of tax exemption of income obtained from a new investment. It has been shown that the joint fulfilment of two conditions allows for the exemption from taxation of income generated from a new investment, i.e. conducting business activity specified in the decision on support in the area indicated in this decision. The reservation that the value of the tax exemption may not exceed the limit of public aid due to this taxpayer is closely related to them. By identifying the above conditions, it was established that the tax exemption is objective, not subjective, as it does not cover other income earned by the taxpayer. The adoption by the legislator of a broad definition of the term "new investment" means that completely new investments and investments consisting in the expansion or modernization of already existing fixed assets belonging to a given entrepreneur should be equally supported.

Keywords: new investment; tax exemption; entrepreneur; public aid; separated area