Europe 1 with AFP 2:32 p.m., January 7, 2023

Several professional organizations are calling for an extension of the guaranteed electricity tariff in 2023 to SMEs, after an announcement to this effect by the government aimed at craftsmen and VSEs.

The device announced on Friday provides that around 600,000 VSEs do not pay more than 280 euros per megawatt hour on average this year.

After the government's announcement of a guaranteed electricity rate in 2023 for craftsmen, several professional organizations called for an extension to SMEs on Saturday.

The device announced on Friday provides that around 600,000 very small businesses (TPE) which consume a lot of electricity, because they heat or cool a lot, and cannot subscribe to the regulated household tariff, do not pay more than 280 euros per average megawatt hour this year.

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"This is excellent news," rejoiced Jean-Eudes du Mesnil, secretary general of the Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CPME), interviewed by AFP on Saturday.

"We can always consider that the price remains too high, but it gives real visibility to these companies," he added.

Distortion of competition between large VSEs and small SMEs

The government wants suppliers, such as EDF, Engie and TotalEnergies, to apply this tariff to very small companies (fewer than ten employees) which had signed contracts at the worst time, when energy prices were historically high, between the July 1 and December 31, 2022. However, adds Jean-Eudes du Mesnil, "we would have liked all SMEs to be able to benefit from this capped rate".

The risk is to see a distortion of competition between large VSEs and small SMEs which carry out the same activity, according to him.

President of the main employers' union for the hotel and catering industry, Umih, chef Thierry Marx for his part affirmed that "this progress does not take into account all of our establishments".

“We ask that all our restaurants and all our hotels be able to benefit from this regulated rate,” he wrote in an open letter to the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire published Friday evening on the website of the daily

Le Parisien

.

The chef still "welcomes" the guaranteed price announced on Friday.

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