France is putting pressure on businesses but wants to avoid a new tax

Paris, July 19 (EFE). – The French government has decided to pressure companies that get extraordinary profits from the inflation spiral to return at least part of it to their employees or consumers, but it is reluctant to create a new tax and will only do so if it does not get satisfaction.

“If he does not succeed, we reserve the right, by the end of the year, to ‘take action,'” Finance Minister Gabriel Attal said on Tuesday, who warned in an interview with France Info radio.

Atal gave an example of what he expects these companies to do by pointing to the 12 cents per liter fuel discount he applies at his TotalEnergies gas stations.

The reduction – as emphasized – is on top of the 18-cent-per-liter subsidy that consumers receive at the expense of the French state, and should last at least until October.

The minister considered that commercial gestures or other types of companies were still insufficient and insisted that “if necessary, we will take action”.

But on the question of whether they are considering a special tax like those announced by other European governments, he emphasized that French President Emmanuel Macron, since his first election, has maintained a policy of tax cuts that will continue with lower taxes on production.

It is a policy through which he asserted that “we have become the most attractive country in Europe for investment.”

In addition, Atal noted that while there are new taxes in Italy or the United Kingdom, new taxes have been imposed on energy companies to collect the exceptional taxes they receive, a device has been put in place in France that limits the rise in the price of electricity. EDF publicly bills its customers and it costs “several billion euros”.

This device means limiting the price per kilowatt-hour increase for private consumers and SMEs to 4% throughout this year, but also forcing EDF to sell a portion of the electricity generated by its nuclear reactors to competing operators at the equilibrium price.

The head of the treasury considered that the gestures companies can make towards consumers have a faster and greater impact than the tax, which must be approved first in Parliament, and which will then take months to start collection. EFE

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