From this Wednesday, the rebate on fuel prices, allocated by the State, will drop from 30 cents to only 10 cents per litre. Is this really reasonable in such a context? “Governing is choosing and taking responsibility,” said Clément Beaune, Minister Delegate for Transport, guest of Europe Matin on Tuesday. “There is a significant discount, 50 cents per liter. I remind you, no European country has done this. We have always said that we had to gradually get out of it by the end of the year”, he added.
The rebate at the pump was due to end on November 1, but faced with rising energy prices, the government had decided to extend the rebate of 30 centimes per liter at the pump until November 15. “We shifted so as not to penalize the French, then precisely to avoid the probably even more difficult phenomena of overconsumption, even rushes”, he explained at the microphone of Europe 1 on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Total, which applies an additional discount in its stations, will also reduce its reduction, from 20 to 10 cents.
“We are not going to live all the time with a rebate paid for by the taxpayer”
Clément Beaune denies withdrawing aid from motorists and recalls that these measures have cost “more than 7 billion euros to the State”. “The rebate on fuel is a gesture that taxpayers make to prevent fuel from being too expensive. We must get out of it gradually because we are not going to live all the time with a rebate paid for by the taxpayer”, said continued the minister.
The rebate at the pump replaced by aid for large wheelers
If the rebate at the pump will disappear at the end of the year, the government is considering the establishment of a “help for big wheelers”. Aid intended for French people who have a car, who use it regularly, subject to income conditions. “We are in the process of defining the thresholds, the idea is to help the most constrained and most modest households”, specified Clément Beaune. To benefit from it, it will be necessary to go to a website, communicated soon by the executive, on which it will be necessary to indicate its level of income, as well as a “certain number of elements” on its vehicle, indicates the Minister of Transport . “You will be told how and when you are entitled to this targeted discount,” he added.
Regarding fuel shortages, the Minister of Transport wants to be reassuring, we are no longer “in a situation of blocking depots and refineries”, “of course there will be fuel arriving at service stations.”