Maciej Wróbel, MP, addressed the Minister of Health regarding plans to diversify the situation of retail outlets and shops, including those operated at petrol stations, in connection with the project to introduce restrictions on the sale of alcohol and alcoholic beverages.
Alcohol Sales Ban at Gas Stations: Is This Economic Inequality?
The MP writes that he has been receiving signals from entrepreneurs running petrol stations who express concern about plans to introduce restrictions on the sale of alcohol and alcoholic beverages at petrol stations. As entrepreneurs, they feel unequally treated, believing that politicians are restricting their economic freedom. They point out that taking legislative initiatives on this topic will significantly worsen the legal and economic situation of only a select group of entrepreneurs.
Fuel sales alone are not enough to keep the station afloat.
– (…) The margins that (station owners – ed.) obtain on fuel sales have been quite low for years, which is why they do not guarantee entrepreneurs a living from fuel stations alone. In addition, the fuel station segment is burdened with many other legal and tax requirements that generate high costs of running the aforementioned business. The wide range of goods and services offered is often a matter of deciding whether to continue running the business. Many entrepreneurs, when deciding to start this business, based their economic calculation on economic freedom, which allowed them to run a store at the fuel station with the possibility of selling alcohol. Currently, in an era of rampant inflation and high costs of running a business, the sale of fuels alone, without additional sales, calls into question the profitability of running a fuel station. As entrepreneurs note, the ban on the sale of alcohol at petrol stations will weaken the condition of small, family businesses, while redirecting the demand for alcohol to the so-called grey zone – writes MP Maciej Wróbel.
What does the Ministry of Health have to say about this? Marek Kos, Undersecretary of State, puts it this way:
– According to the World Health Organization, limiting the physical availability of alcohol is one of the most effective actions aimed at
to limit alcohol consumption, he stressed.
The new act on sobriety education and counteracting alcoholism is waiting to be entered into the list of government program works
Countries are advised to enact and enforce regulations on the physical availability of alcohol, such as shortening sales hours (a highly cost-effective solution), setting an appropriate minimum age for purchasing or consuming alcoholic beverages, and reducing the density of outlets. Governments should regulate the density of alcohol outlets and limit it where it causes unjustified harm.
The Ministry of Health has begun work on regulations introducing restrictions on the sale of alcoholic beverages at gas stations.
– The draft act amending the act on education in sobriety and counteracting alcoholism was submitted to the Team for programming government work in order to obtain an entry in the List of legislative and programmatic works of the Council of Ministers. In the next step, the proposal of regulations in this area will be presented, in accordance with the government legislative process, in public consultations and agreements
inter-ministerial meetings, where you will be able to get to know the project and its
justification, and submit detailed comments and possible additions regarding the economic effects of the proposed provisions, which, due to their competence, the Ministry of Health does not have, wrote a representative of the Ministry of Health.
