“We return the VAT”, hastened to declare Matignon. The discount of 15 cents per liter of gasoline, presented by Prime Minister Jean Castex, Saturday March 12, is not a tax reduction. But it is just like, assures the executive, who says he is thus restoring part of the additional taxes that the State has been collecting for a few months. There is no question of giving the impression that the State “is getting fat on the energy crisis”as Jean Castex said while traveling in the Jura.
Because taxation on fuels has a particular political dimension that other taxes do not have, except perhaps wealth tax or inheritance tax. Few taxes are as unpopular: it was taxation on gasoline, which accounts for nearly 60% of the price at the pump, which set fire to the powder in the fall of 2018 and gave birth to the social movement of “vests yellow”. This is considered unequal because it is partly proportional – the VAT on this product is proportional, but the internal consumption tax on energy products (TICPE), the other component of these taxes, is fixed. A little higher than elsewhere in Europe, it is also considered unfair, because it penalizes households who have no choice but to travel by car.
“It’s obvious that lowering fuel taxes would be the most popular option,” admits, embarrassed, an adviser to the executive. Matignon had also considered it in the fall to respond to the beginning of inflation, before coming up against fierce opposition from Bercy. Fuel taxes pay big dividends, which partly fuels the criticism leveled at them. The TICPE, whose return is also very constant, alone brought in 27 billion euros in 2020. “I prefer to commit to the French that all tax revenue from fossil fuels be directed towards the decarbonization of our economy, towards ecological transition”, repeats the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire. This is also the reason why the right-wing presidential candidate, Valérie Pécresse, is not in favor of a reduction in gasoline taxes..
Political marker for Marine Le Pen
The candidate of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, on the other hand, very early on grasped the symbolic dimension of this tax for her popular electorate, and made it a real political marker to differentiate herself, in particular, from her rival Eric Zemmour, who proposes a blocking prices at the pump, the legal feasibility of which seems less obvious. “Lowering the VAT on fuels, there is nothing clearer, believes Franck Allisio, one of Marine Le Pen’s advisers. Otherwise we assume that the patient is imaginary. Freezing prices is the solution of the world before. »
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