Paris (AFP)

The introduction of tax withholding tax has allowed the state to collect an additional € 2 billion this year, said Wednesday the Minister of Public Accounts, Gerald Darmanin.

"We recovered 1 billion more than we had planned, that is to say 2 billion euros additional," said the minister on France Inter, a sum that corresponds to "0.1 point of gross domestic product is a lot of money ".

Without increasing the tax of the French, we made a reform that brings more money into the coffers of the state, "he added.

The introduction this year of the withholding tax of the income tax allowed to "make pay the people who (previously) would have had to pay the tax but who defrauded or who were phobic administrative," said M Darmanin.

In total, the income tax, paid by 16.8 million tax households out of a total of 38.3 million, annually brings about 75 billion euros to the state.

The finance bill for 2020, which will be presented Friday in the Council of Ministers, provides for a decrease of 5 billion euros in this tax, thanks to a reduction of 3 points in the tax rate of the first tranche, which concerns 12 million homes.

This measure was announced by the President of the Republic in the spring, in response to the movement of "yellow vests", a crisis that has "accelerated" the tax cuts envisaged by the government, according to Mr. Darmanin.

In addition, the minister confirmed that the carbon tax, one of the triggers of the "yellow vests" crisis, would not increase next year or the following years.

"There will be no end of the five-year increase by taxation of the price of gasoline and diesel," said Darmanin.

However, the government plans to reduce a tax niche that some companies benefit from for non-road diesel. In addition, it plans to increase the taxation of 2 cents per liter on diesel fuel paid by the road haulage sector to finance infrastructure.

- deficit target "not kept" -

On the other hand, the minister acknowledged that the goal of reducing the public deficit to 0.5 percent of GDP in 2022 "will not be met".

"It was a goal (...) at a time when we thought growth was at 1.7%, it is at 1.3 / 1.4%, and at a time when there was no had extremely strong social challenges, "justified Mr. Darmanin.

In its scenario for the draft budget 2020, the government expects a public deficit of 2.2% of GDP next year, against 2% initially targeted (and 3.1% expected this year). A trajectory "plausible", according to the opinion of the High Council on Public Finance (HCFP), unveiled by Les Echos Wednesday.

In this opinion, which the HCFP must officially publish on Friday, the institution points however a quasi stagnation of the structural deficit (excluding exceptional items and impact of the economic situation) around 2.2% of GDP, a shift of 0.2 point above the trajectory set by the government over the 2018-2019 period (and 0.6 point in cumulative over the period 2018-2020).

A discrepancy close to the threshold of 0.25 points defined by the law, notes the HCFP, which could force to trigger a correction mechanism to find the right trajectory. The HCFP denounces a "problem of consistency" of government policy, according to the daily.

© 2019 AFP