“To be very clear, there will be no increase in income tax,” says Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin

“We do not want to make the middle classes, nor those who work, nor the most vulnerable pay,” promises the minister.

“We do not want to make the middle classes pay, we do not want to make those who work pay and therefore, to be very clear, there will be no increase in income tax”assured Tuesday October 8 the Minister of the Budget and Public Accounts Laurent Saint-Martin, on franceinfo.

“The middle classes, the working classes, the most vulnerable among us, will not be affected by this tax increase”he repeated. “There will be no increase in income tax, there will be no stop indexing income tax to inflation,” he added.

“Our priority is to reduce public spending,” said the minister responsible for finalizing the budget. “Two thirds of this 60 billion effort must first be made by reducing public spending,” he continues, for “sovereignty of the nation”. The remaining third will be “exceptional, temporary contribution” requested “to those who can”, or a tax increase for very high incomes and very large companies. The contribution requested from households will concern 0.3% of them. “We are truly in an exceptional contribution from fortunate people”, insisted the minister, taking the example of a childless couple with annual income of 500,000 euros. “It will be temporary because we need, while we restore public finances, structural reforms to continue to make public spending more efficient,” he stressed.

For Laurent Saint-Martin, “There must be no taboo in this budget.” “We must be able, together, to ask ourselves where public money is most useful,” argued the minister. “This budget is neither an austerity cure nor a tax bludgeoning”he continued, repeating that he had for “base” there “mastery” and the “reduction in public spending”.

Asked about savings options, particularly on the reduction of staff in the civil service, Laurent Saint-Martin clarified that he did not want to “blind cuts”. “I don’t want there to be stupidly just a grinding as they say, that is to say we grind everyone down. No, we have priorities”he defended. “It is out of the question to make a generalized cut on public officials in all ministries in an equivalent manner”he stressed. Without revealing which ministries will be affected by possible staff reductions, the minister excluded “regular ministries”.