Filling up with diesel now costs 80 euros on average, or almost 10 cents more per litre, than in the fall of 2018, when the movement of “yellow vests” led to the occupation of roundabouts, forcing the government to freeze tax increases. A measure to which the executive has been careful not to touch since.
Admittedly, fuel represents on average only 5% of the French budget, but for the most modest, it is more – up to 15% of their expenses in the month. And as for the baguette, everyone notices when this price increases, it is a daily marker. For many French people who take their car to work, it is also an incompressible expense.
Fuel taxes, TICPE and VAT, represent more than half of the price paid by motorists. But no question of lowering them, insists the Minister of the Economy. Bruno the Mayor recalled this week: a tax cut is not effective, according to him, because it can very well be immediately absorbed by a new rise in the price of a barrel of oil. And then it is very expensive: 10 cents less per liter is equivalent to a shortfall of 5 billion euros for the State.
Several presidential candidates are advocating lower fuel taxes. Socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo is proposing a temporary tax cut, if needed. It does not go into the detail of the mechanism. Marine Le Pen wants to reduce VAT to 5.5%, fuel being, according to the RN candidate, a basic necessity.
Communist candidate Fabien Roussel pleads for a floating tax when Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants to freeze prices.
At Bercy, we are not at all in favor of any additional gesture whatsoever, for several reasons: the State has already spent 15 billion, between the freezing of energy prices in particular, and the check for 100 euros which has not even yet been distributed to all of the 38 million French people concerned, a check which has therefore not yet been spent in many homes.