EN
Significant decrease of expected budget tax revenues in 2008 and 2009, due to economic slowdown in Poland, implied uncontrolled public budget deficit increase threat. Ministry of Finance had to face dilemma how to avoid it, taking into account market conditions. The aim of this paper is to verify whether State decided to excessively increase the level of dividends paid by state-owned companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange during crises period, without taking into account interest of minority shareholders. We collected data from 2000 to 2013 to investigate whether State dividend policy was in accordance to literature accomplishments. Results of our analysis show increasing significance of dividend as a source of budget revenues. Moreover, we observed high concentration of companies that distribute their profits (in form of dividend) to State. Based on the theory review, we concluded that State does not conduct clear, long term dividend policy and does not rely on dividend payment recommendations made by companies management boards. On the other hand, we did not prove that State implemented unusual dividend policy during the crisis period.