MONTASTRUC-DU-SALIES, Haute-Garonne (Reuters) – Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced on Friday that the government was giving up on gradually eliminating the tax reduction on non-road diesel (GNR), one of the demands of farmers demonstrating in across France.
The head of government declined a series of “simplification” measures in favor of farmers on the sidelines of a trip to Montastruc-du-Salies (Haute-Garonne) where he was accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, and the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu.
The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, announced last September the elimination of the “tax niche” for GNR, a fuel used by farmers, as part of France’s decarbonization efforts. A gradual elimination by 2030, under an agreement reached with the FNSEA in the summer of 2023.
This decision has had the effect of increasing the price of GNR per liter since the start of the year, which puts a further strain on farmers’ finances.
“We are stopping with this system which is Kafkaesque. (…) We are going to stop with this trajectory of increase in the GNR”, said Gabriel Attal, also promising an “immediate return to the pump of the exemption”.
(Written by Bertrand Boucey and Sophie Louet)
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