“We will see in the coming months if we need to go further,” says the Minister for Public Accounts

Thomas Cazenave considers it “probably difficult” to be able to meet the objective of a “deficit of 4.9% of GDP for 2023” due to a “slowdown in revenue”.

“We do not rule out the fact that we will perhaps have, if necessary, an amending budget in the summer”, warns Tuesday February 20 on France Inter Thomas Cazenave, Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts, the day after the announcement of a budgetary tightening for the State. On Monday, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire announced 10 billion euros in additional savings for this year, in order to meet the target of a deficit of 4.4% of GDP. Thomas Cazenave recognizes that it is a “significant effort”. But he does not say whether this will be enough to compensate for the drop in growth. “We will see in the coming months if we need to go further”he adds.

The Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts judges in fact “probably difficult” to be able to achieve the objective of “deficit at 4.9% of GDP for 2023” because of a “revenue slowdown”. Thomas Cazenave supports this by saying that for this year the objective “remains the same”namely “lower our deficit to 4.4%” of gross domestic product. For Bercy, these savings are a “justice issue”. He thus recalls that the government had “massively protected the French, the economy and local authorities” particularly during the health crisis linked to Covid-19. It is therefore, according to Thomas Cazenave “responsibility” of the government “to reduce the deficit to face the crises of tomorrow”.

“Everyone is involved”

“The French can completely understand that when you have less revenue, you have to spend a little less”he insists, before specifying that this “plan is very focused on the state.” With this recovery plan, the government intends to show that “everyone is involved, [qu’il] there is no budgetary immunity”. But the Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts emphasizes that the State “don’t ask for effort from the French” and go “take on [ses] shoulders the responsibility of making these savings to avoid letting public finances drift.”

Alongside these requested savings, Thomas Cazenave believes that it “there are additional revenues to be obtained by applying the tax system as it exists”. He notes that “since January 1st” the government has equipped itself with “18 additional measures to better combat tax, social and customs fraud” or against “the offense of inciting tax and social security fraud”.

Finally, the Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts returns to the government’s announcement of the establishment of a flat-rate contribution for employees using their personal training account. Thomas Cazenave confirms that this participation will be of the order of “10%” of each training. “This will give rise to a decree which will be taken in April”he specifies.