Paris (AFP)
Faced with a request by MPs to open the debate on the tax expenditures unfavorable to the environment, the Minister of Economy took Tuesday night the commitment of "in-depth discussions" with the sectors of activity concerned, but refused any date of removal of these expenses.
"The demarcation is not the solution A successful reform requires dialogue and support," assured Bruno Mayor in the Assembly, during the examination of the draft state budget for 2020 .
In a move to "greening" the budget, the Finance Committee last week adopted an amendment from the coordinator LREM Bénédicte Peyrol plan to remove by 2029 the partial refund of the TICPE (fuel tax) in favor farmers, the reduced rate of TICPE used for taxis, and still reduced tax rates for energy intensive facilities.
In the Chamber, Ms. Peyrol said she wanted to launch a simple "call" for "the government can commit."
The minister argued that "our coherence is the energy transition", but the activity of these sectors based on fossil fuels, we must first "work" the issue. He proposed that this be done within the framework of the "productive pact" announced in April by Emmanuel Macron, and successfully requested the withdrawal of the amendment.
Republicans supported the minister (ex-LR), and pleaded to give "visibility" to companies.
Conversely, Matthieu Orphelin (formerly LREM), close to the former minister Nicolas Hulot, defended an amendment in vain to set a horizon of disappearance of these anti-ecological exceptions to 2025, in order to send a " signal "not" too far ".
"Why be shy about goals when we are in a time trial" for the environment, also supported Ugo Bernalicis (LFI), pointing out that the government had "taken so many precautions on tax increases ecological fuel on the French, "before the crisis of" yellow vests ".
© 2019 AFP