With a further increase of 2 cents of the main fuels and a record level reached for diesel last week, tension is mounting in the government to limit the impact of this surge in prices on households. Monday morning, at the microphone of Europe 1, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, confirmed to be
"more favorable"
to the establishment of a fuel check than a reduction in taxes, to target aid on homes that need it most. The teams of the ministries concerned are working to try to finalize the device this week, which however promises to be difficult to set up.
"We do not have today, as for the energy check
(used to pay housing bills such as electricity and gas, editor's note),
a database of all the people who might need it.
For example, we do not have a database of people who need their car to go to work ”,
specified the Minister of Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, on France 2.
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Gasoline: the track of the fuel check
The only certainty at this stage, this fuel check will not fail to lengthen the bill for the public funds a little more. Because, a few months before the presidential election, the Castex executive is not its first helping hand to mitigate increases in energy prices. In an amendment to the 2022 draft budget tabled in the National Assembly on Monday, the executive endorsed a degradation of 5 billion euros in the state accounts compared to initial estimates. That is to say the cost of capping the increase in electricity prices from next February, (via a reduction in taxes), a capping which is part of the "tariff shield" decided ten days ago for cope with rising gas and electricity prices.The executive also leaves itself the possibility of playing on the taxes on gas. To this is added the exceptional targeted aid of 100 euros which will be paid next December to the 5.8 million beneficiaries of the energy voucher, the cost of which amounts to 600 million euros.