Gesture from Total: "It's always good to take", grants a consumer association

Solène Leroux with Élise Denjean 3:24 p.m., February 09, 2022

A boost from Total for its most precarious customers.

The CEO of the group promises a check for 100 euros for its gas subscribers and a discount on refueling.

Two parts of the population are particularly targeted: the most precarious and the furthest from city centers.

The discount at the pump in the amount of five euros for 50 liters and two euros for 20 liters is aimed at customers of rural TotalEnergies stations.

There are more than 1,000 in France, in and around towns of 6,000 inhabitants.

This boost, which should start next Monday, will last three months.

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In addition, TotalEnergies will offer a check for 100 euros for all its gas customers in a situation of fuel poverty, the same ones having already benefited from the government's energy check.

This represents approximately 200,000 people.

Total amount of the operation: 50 million euros, or 30% of the margin of gas, electricity and fuel supply activities in France, according to the group.

About 15 billion profit

Since the announcement, several associations and elected officials have been crying out for communication.

In any case, what is certain is that the timing was well chosen.

Tomorrow, the company must unveil its annual results, which are very high with the surge in hydrocarbon prices.

We are talking about 15 billion euros in profits.

What relaunch the idea of ​​an exceptional tax on the oil giants to help low-income households.

Do consumer associations find this boost significant?

Guest of

, the general delegate of the consumer association CLCV (Consumption Housing and Living Environment) François Carlier sees it as "small progress", a "gesture which is not nothing" compared to the previous crisis in the years 2006/2008, "when Total was making similar profits and fuel and gas prices were soaring".

According to the delegate, "they weren't doing this type of gesture at the time".

A change of tone on the side of the hydrocarbon company that François Carlier attributes in particular to the impact of consumer associations which "have played their role".

A form of progress, "especially in terms of gas" since "100 euros for precarious households is always good to take".

Need for a debate on Total's profits

However, "that does not obscure the debate on soaring energy prices and the drain on purchasing power" and even more so according to "measures that the public authorities will have to take within six months / a year".

For François Carlier, "at that time, the financing of these public measures will perhaps pass through a taxation of exceptional profits" from Total.

To boost the purchasing power of the French, the general delegate of CLCV recommends taking "measures for better regulation of the market for electricity or gas".

He also wants to "return to the unbridled opening of the markets which has been decided for 20 years".

A measure that makes sense "costs nothing", since it is about regulation.

Finally, François Carlier believes that it will be necessary, in due course, to make a "real fiscal gesture".

Even if he admits that for the moment, "we are facing budgetary problems of the State".

He proposes to see if the evolution of prices continues, and to ask the question again within six months to a year.

“At that time”, he specifies, it will be necessary to find a way to finance this gesture “through various sources of financing, possibly including an exceptional contribution from energy companies”.