MEPs vote to abolish the audiovisual license fee at first reading in the Assembly

Precision : franceinfo.fr is the digital information offer of the public audiovisual sector. Its teams and their production, at France Télévisions and Radio France, are partly financed by the license fee.

The deputies validated, Saturday, July 23, the abolition of the fee which finances public broadcasting, within the framework of the amending finance bill. The vote was won by 170 votes against 57, during the examination at first reading of the amending finance bill for 2022. To compensate for the shortfall for public broadcasting groups, the deputies have planned a levy of a fraction of VAT.

The abolition of the fee had been announced by Emmanuel Macron during the presidential campaign. The executive estimates that the abolition of this tax will make purchasing power up to 138 euros per year to nearly 23 million households liable. “We assume that we want to remove taxes that weigh on the Frenchwelcomed the Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal. We are very attached to our public broadcasting.” He assured that the measure would not endanger the independence of public broadcasting.

The deputies of Nupes, opposed to the measure, denounce “a demagogic and dangerous measure”. “Democracy needs a strong, reformed public audiovisual service, with fairer funding and guaranteeing independence”, in particular demanded MP LFI Clémentine Autain.

“We remove a tax […] some of which are already exempt” to replace it with “a very unfair tax, VAT, which everyone pays, even those who don’t have a TV”, was also indignant the deputy and spokesman of the Socialist Party (PS) Arthur Delaporte . In effect, “When you are a pensioner at least old age, you benefit from the Disabled Adult Allowance or when you simply do not have a television at home, you do not pay the license fee”he recalled.