A year and a half after the deployment of the public treasury collection service among tobacconists across the country, it is time to take stock. The French have paid two million “daily bills” thanks to this local payment system, generalized throughout the territory in July 2020.
According to data from the National Confederation of Tobacconists, at the end of December 2021, 12,400 professionals were approved to carry out this type of collection, in 6,500 municipalities. Or about one in two tobacconists.
@PHILIPPECOY, @stephane_pallez and A.Magnant are at @VilleMaurepas in @Les_Yvelines to share the results of receipts of daily invoices @dgfip_officiel
2M transactions made since the launch in July 2020 among 12,600 #tobacconists approved pic.twitter.com/ju3yQpiOrg
– The tobacconists (@LesBuralistes) January 21, 2022
This service allows users to pay their fines, local utility bills or taxes of less than 300 euros at tobacconists. Payment can be made in cash or by credit card.
The balance sheet shows that the average amount of transactions recorded under this system amounts to 84 euros. “28% of the payments” made “concern taxes, 36% fines, and as many local bills”, related to nursery, hospital or canteen costs, for example.
Tax payments represent precisely 550,000 receipts since the launch of the service. “Nearly 60%” of them “allowed to pay the audiovisual tax”, while the other transactions concerned property and housing taxes.
“Local merchants”
Since July 2020, this system has been designed to facilitate the collection of public treasuries. At the tobacconist, the user scans the bar code of his bill on a terminal of the Française des jeux and pays the amount due directly to the tobacconist. A proof of payment is then given to him.
For the president of the National Confederation of tobacconists, Philippe Coy, this service proves the status of “local utility traders” but also of “State officials” of these professionals. It also allows them to diversify their business, in a context of steady decline in tobacco sales, their main source of income.
With, among other things, the sale of newspapers, SNCF tickets, the management of Nickel bank accounts and postal parcels, or even catering activities, tobacconists are thus adding a new string to their bow. In this, the CEO of the Française des jeux, Stéphane Pallez, welcomes a “very positive” assessment and welcomes “the simplification of the daily life of users of public services”.