Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne wishes double the amount of the transport premium, tax-free aid that companies can pay to their employees to cover their fuel costs. “The philosophy is to protect the purchasing power of all French people on fuel at the start of the school year, and that companies then take over”, she said in an interview with the EBRA group newspapers on Thursday [article payant]. The head of government proposes raise the ceiling for this aid to 400 euros instead of 200, “the equivalent of a discount of nearly 50 cents at the pump for an employee who travels 12,000 kilometers per year”.
This boost was planned in the preliminary versions purchasing power measures, before finally disappearing from the amending finance bill (PLFR), examined from this Friday by the deputies. This proposal arises again as the executive and Les Républicains (LR) try to find an agreement to deal with soaring fuel prices. Olivier Marleix, the president of the LR group in the National Assembly pleaded Wednesday on franceinfo so that the ceiling of this transport premium “be increased to 400 euros”.
Towards an extension of the discount at the pump?
An agreement also seems to be emerging between the presidential majority and the LRs to extend and increase the discount of 18 cents on a liter of fuel. The government wanted to put an end to this rebate to replace it with the fuel bonus, a more targeted device intended for “big riders” and low-income employees who use their car for home-work journeys. “Oil prices are coming down, which makes us less worried,” underlined the Prime Minister, while pleading for “maintain affordable prices at the start of the school year in September”.