Some 200 days before the election, the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) is proposing to abolish the QST on “basic necessities” including the electricity bill, a promise intended to curb the rise in the cost of living.
The leader of the party, Dominique Anglade, pledged Sunday to lighten the budget of Quebecers by a promise to cancel the Quebec tax of 9.975% on “soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, non-prescription drugs”, goods qualified as “basic necessities”. The QST exemption would also affect the electricity bill up to $4,000. “It would have an impact on the ability of Quebecers to pay the amounts,” argued Ms. Anglade during a press conference.
“Electricity is also a basic necessity. It is not a luxury in Quebec to have heat and electricity. It joins the same logic, ”she argued.
In all, this tax abolition would leave behind a $1.5 billion hole in the Quebec treasury, according to estimates by the PLQ, which believes that in return, each family would save about $500 a year.
This shortfall would not weigh heavily on the national budget, explained Carlos Leitão, official opposition spokesman for public finances. “Compared to the March 2021 budget, state revenues are roughly 10 billion more than budgeted. […] The effect of inflation on state revenue, at least in the first and second year [du mandat de la CAQ], results in much higher incomes. There’s a lot of wiggle room to do things like that. »
The PLQ also demands a freeze on hydroelectricity rates “until we return to a normal process for determining the growth of electricity rates”. Dominique Anglade thus wishes to distance herself from the “historic error” of the CAQ to tie the increase in electricity rates to inflation. It considers that it is necessary to “return” to an annual increase determined in concert with the Régie de l’énergie.