Faced with inflation, the government lifts the veil on Thursday on a series of long-awaited measures intended to protect the purchasing power of the French, and which will be seen as a passing exam for its relative majority in the Assembly in the face of opposition to the offensive.
The fuel allowance for low-income workers and high-speed commuters will be implemented on October 1 and the 18-cent rebate will disappear at the end of the year, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire announced on Thursday. “We are going to replace the 18 cents which will be reduced to 16, 12, 10 (cents), we will do it very gradually but at the end of the year there will be no more fuel discounts, and from October 1 , in any case, this is the proposal we are making, we are setting up this fuel allowance for workers”, declared the minister on Europe 1.
The new allowance may be requested by simple declaration on the site of the Directorate General of Public Finances, specified the Minister, adding that if “your home and your place of work are very far away or that you are itinerant, for example, because you are nurse’s aide, you declare that you are a heavy roller and you will have additional compensation”, added Bruno Le Maire.
The objective according to the minister is to cover “almost all of your additional fuel costs” incurred due to the increase in oil prices since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
He further indicated that the current rebate of 18 centimes per liter of fuel cost 800 million euros per month while the new device would cost only 2 billion euros per year.
“This is proof that we do not want whatever it costs. Our public finances do not allow it,” said Bruno Le Maire. He quantified the purchasing power measures which must be presented Thursday afternoon in the Council of Ministers at “about twenty billion euros” against 25 billion mentioned above.
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At the end of the Council of Ministers, the hearing of Bruno Le Maire and the Minister Delegate for Public Accounts Gabriel Attal by the Finance Committee of the Assembly, now chaired by the Insoumis Eric Coquerel, will be a baptism of fire.
“These measures are our basis for work. With my government, we will listen to you and we will amend them when convergences emerge”, promised Elisabeth Borne on Wednesday.
A public deficit forecast at 5%
In recent days, the government has launched leads. Bruno Le Maire said he was open to extending the fuel discount of 18 cents per liter until the end of the year (instead of the end of August) and proposed creating a new compensation for motorists who use their car to work. On the other hand, at this stage, no proposal put forward by the opposition seems to be viewed favorably by the executive.
Lower fuel taxes to bring prices down to 1.50 euro/l, as the LRs want, or freeze prices at 1.40 euro/l, as the left wants? Too expensive, according to Bercy. Smic at 1,500 euros? A threat to employment, we answer to the government.
“There are undoubtedly intermediate paths” to be found, we want to believe in the entourage of the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne having notably underlined in her speech on Wednesday to foresee possible “compromises, convergences” with the LRs.
The leader of the RN deputies Marine Le Pen said her camp’s desire to “influence” the texts that will be presented, “in the forefront of which the one that the French await with hope and impatience, that on the power of purchase”.
At Nupes, we judge the text of the government “very, very far from being up to what the French expect”, according to the president of the Insoumis group in the assembly Mathilde Panot, and we plan to file many amendments to the purchasing power bill.
They will still have to be financed, we warn the government, where we recall the “constrained” framework of public finances, with a public deficit still forecast at 5% this year and weaker than expected growth of 2 .5%.