This must be the first major text of Emmanuel Macron’s second five-year term. The “purchasing power” bill, supposed to be presented to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday July 6 and examined in Parliament in the process, should make it possible to relieve the French, weighed down by inflation which should reach an average of 5.5% in 2022.
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Its content is already the subject of a bitter political battle between the oppositions and the executive, the former counting on the absence of an absolute majority in the National Assembly of the presidential camp to impose some of their key measures. Before the final arbitrations of the executive and the opening of parliamentary debates, franceinfo details what the bill contains as it stands.
The extension of existing measures
Several measures already implemented in recent months to combat rising prices should be extended. This is the case of energy tariff shield (which has already been extended by decree until December 31, 2022), and which caps the sale prices of gas and electricity. The discount of 18 centimes per liter on fuels still holds too, at least for the month of August. At the same time, the government is considering a new device more targeted at large ridersbut its articulation with the discount is not settled, assured Friday June 24 the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
The one-off inflation allowance should also return under the name of food check. The government has abandoned the idea of a monthly food check, which was to allow access to quality products. This new financial assistance, the amount of which has not yet been determined, will be paid “In one time” and “in September”, directly to the bank account of the most modest, announced the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne. While ensuring that the reflection continued on a food check more targeted on the products “quality” and “organic”.
Finally, the Macron bonus, which had appeared during the crisis of “yellow vests”, will be perpetuated and its ceiling tripled. Companies will therefore be able to pay up to 3,000 euros to their employees, or even 6,000 euros for companies with fewer than 50 employees and those with a profit-sharing agreement.
Revaluations of social benefits
Several social benefits need to be upgraded. The retirement and disability pensions basic diets, activity bonus (whose lump sum is 563.68 euros), but also the family benefits and social minima, including the Solidarity labor income (550.93 euros for a single person without resources), theallowance for disabled adults (919.86 euros maximum), thesolidarity allowance for the elderly (916.78 euros for a single person) should experience a 4% increase, according to the bill consulted by AFP. This boost will be retroactive to July 1. The cost of these revaluations amounts to “just under 7 billion at the end of 2022”according Les Echos (article reserved for subscribers).
The amending finance bill, presented at the same time as the “purchasing power” bill, should also include a 3.5% revaluation of theHousing assistance (APL), which would represent an additional expense of 168 million euros.
New measures put in place
The government is also planning a series of new measures. Civil servants will thus see the end of the freezing of their index point, which serves as the basis for their remuneration. Public service unions are asking for between 3% for the CFDT and 20% for the CFTC. A 1% increase would cost the state 2 billion euros per year, according to the government, which should announce the value of the new point on June 28.
A drop in self-employed contributions is also included in the bill. It must allow them to win “550 euros per year at the level of the minimum wage”had assured mid-May the spokesman of the former government Gabriel Attal.
The bill also provides for a strengthening of the “transport allowance” paid by companies to their employees to cover part of the cost of their home-to-work travel. The upper limit of tax and social security exemption for the employer’s assumption of the fuel costs of its employees will thus be doubled, from 200 to 400 euros for the years 2022 and 2023. Employees will also be able to combine this bonus with the paid by the employer for 50% of the price of public transport season tickets.
The removal of the audiovisual license fee should also be effective next fall, with a gain for households of 138 euros, or a shortfall for the State of more than 3 billion euros net.
The text also wants to open up the possibility of establishing a system ofprofit-sharing by the employer even without a branch agreement or with staff representatives. The objective is to allow employees to benefit from the sharing of the value created in the company. On the other hand, the track of a “employee dividend”which was to make participation in the company compulsory, “not in original text at this stage”confirms the Ministry of Labor.
In addition to these measures, the government plans to include in the amending finance bill a “rent shield”aiming to cap rent increases for one year at 3.5%, confirmed Bruno Le Maire on BFMTV on Monday June 27.