The tax refund on diesel from which certain professions benefit will be abolished for farmers and public works companies, but not road hauliers, in order to preserve their “competitiveness”, announced Thursday the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire.
We will eliminate the tax niche on non-road diesel (GNR) simply to switch our taxation from a brown tax – it is a tax that encourages the consumption of fossil fuels, so it is bad for the climate – a tax that values green investments, Bruno Le Maire told Franceinfo.
This measure will concern farmers and construction companies, with whom discussions are underway in order to reach an agreement, he continued, specifying that there would be compensation to accompany the transformation. We must not proceed by brutality, added the minister.
Gradual application from 2024
Questioned by AFP, the Minister of Economy and Finance indicated that the end of the tax exemption for non-road diesel would apply gradually from 2024 and until 2030 for the construction industry, or even a little beyond for farmers.
The president of the FNSEA, the leading agricultural union, will be at Bercy next week, the same source added. The union said it was ready to phase out GNR if an alternative solution was offered to operators: tractors running on another fuel, aid for the transition, etc.
Its president Arnaud Rousseau again declared this Thursday on RMC that there was no question of it being abruptly removed. Asking for an effort, a change from brown to green, to use the expression of the Minister of the Economy, requires solutions. But today, there are few solutions. For us, it’s a matter of competitiveness, he said.
The truckers escape the planing stroke
On the other hand, road hauliers will not be affected by the gradual end of the tax exemption for diesel in order to preserve (their) competitiveness, underlined Mr. Le Maire. The Minister noted that for this profession the level of taxation of diesel was higher in France than that practiced by other European countries.
The level of taxation of diesel is 3.8 cents for farmers, 18 cents for public works, so it is very much lower than what exists in the average of European countries and in France, he explained. But it is 45 cents for road hauliers, it is higher than what is practiced in Spain, higher than what is practiced in Italy.
The Union of Transport and Logistics Companies of France (Union TLF) indicated that this decision was awaited by carriers. We are already among the most taxed countries in Europe! We must preserve our competitiveness because we are a strategic sector for the country, declared its general delegate, Olivier Poncelet.
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