Towards the rapid end of the electricity tariff shield for businesses

Not everyone is housed in the same boat. Friday, April 21, the government announced its decision to protect households for at least one more year against the upheavals of the electricity market by extending until the beginning of 2025 the tariff shield, a shield put in place in October 2021 to limit the increase bills. With prices starting to fall again on the wholesale markets – by the way, more for gas than for electricity – the minister believes that companies no longer need help.

>> Energy prices: why is the government going to extend the tariff shield on electricity but not on gas?

France’s Deputy Minister for Industry, Roland Lescure, suggests that the situation could be reviewed in the fall. “If in the fall, we realize that we need it, we will put in place an aid system, but within a European framework”, says the Minister. As a reminder, the increase in the regulated electricity tariff, capped by the State thanks to subsidies, was 4% in 2022 and it is 15% this year. But European countries cannot act independently on the subject. This is what our Minister of Industry insists on.

Deleveraging

As for businesses,today we have a calendar dictated to us by Europe”, recalls Roland Lescure. This timetable authorizes the governments of the member countries of the Union to maintain the aid window until the end of this year only. The government is therefore anticipating, at the risk of making people unhappy, especially on the side of SMEs which continue to cushion the shock.

Regardless of European rules, the state can continue to spend, but the bill is always paid at the end. These announcements come as the Ministry of Economy and Finance is preparing the review of its accounts to present them in Brussels soon.

On Wednesday April 26, the government will present its roadmap for the coming years to the Council of Ministers. Matignon intends to send a serious budgetary message, with the aim of reducing debt and clearing finances before 2027, the end of Emmanuel Macron’s second five-year term.