Poland's Sejm passes bill raising e-cigarette excise to 50 zloty per device

Poland's Sejm, the lower house of parliament, passed an amendment on Friday that tightens excise duty collection on electronic cigarettes and raises tax rates on both vaping devices and e-liquids, wnp.pl reported.

The bill was adopted with 242 votes in favour, 21 against and 165 abstentions. It now goes to the Senate.

The provisions were prepared by the Ministry of Finance. They are intended to seal the excise collection system on the electronic cigarette market and to bring into the tax net devices that until now remained outside the scope of taxation. According to the explanatory statement cited by wnp.pl, the changes respond to cases in which the existing rules were circumvented by selling the individual components of an e-cigarette separately.

New product categories and rates

The law changes the legal definition of an electronic cigarette and introduces new categories of products, including reusable electronic cigarettes designed for replaceable cartridges, and a residual category of other electronic cigarettes. At the same time, cartridges for reusable devices are to be excluded from excise duty.

The rate changes are as follows:

• Excise on vaporising devices and on sets of parts for those devices rises from 40 zloty to 50 zloty per unit.
• The same 50-zloty charge is to be added to the excise levied on the liquid contained in a disposable electronic cigarette.
• From 1 January 2027, the excise rate on e-cigarette liquid rises from 1.80 zloty to 2.20 zloty per millilitre.

The combination of device-level taxation with an exemption for refills concentrates the duty burden on hardware and on disposable products, while relieving the consumable used in reusable systems.

Revenue estimates

The Ministry of Finance estimates that the changes will increase public finance sector revenue by about 435 million zloty a year, with an additional 29 million zloty in the first year the rules are in force, according to wnp.pl. The gap between the first-year figure and the annual run rate reflects the phasing of the measures: most provisions apply only after a transition period, and the higher per-millilitre rate on liquid does not take effect until 2027.

Stated policy goals

The ministry says the new arrangements are meant to ensure an equal excise burden on all electronic cigarettes regardless of the technology used, to limit the scope for circumventing the rules, and to reduce the price affordability of these products, particularly for young users.

Equal treatment across technologies is the central design principle. By defining reusable systems, disposables and a residual category separately, and by attaching a charge to devices and to sets of parts, the legislation removes the advantage that came from splitting a product into untaxed elements at the point of sale.

Timetable for business

The amendment provides that most of the new regulations will apply three months after the law enters into force, so that companies have time to adapt to the new registration and tax-stamp obligations, wnp.pl reported.

That window matters for importers and distributors. Tax-stamp requirements change physical handling: goods must be marked before release for consumption, which affects warehousing, labelling lines and contracts with foreign suppliers. Registration obligations widen the number of operators formally inside the excise system, including firms that previously handled only devices or components not covered by the duty.

The legislative process is not complete. The Senate may propose amendments, which would return to the Sejm, and the bill must pass the remaining stages before the three-month adaptation period and the 2027 increase in the liquid rate are fixed in law.