Rennes (AFP)

Construction professionals received Monday in Bercy will consult their base after obtaining "progress" on many of their claims, but not on a new deadline for the elimination of the tax advantage for non-road diesel (GNR).

Their mobilization has caused blocking access to several oil depots in western France since Thursday and continued Monday.

We obtained "a reinforced control entrusted to the gendarmerie, a specific fuel with a coloration for the BTP, a list of the machines which will be able to use only this fuel", declared to some journalists Françoise Despret, president of the National Chamber of the craftsmen Public Works and Landscape (CNATP).

"These advances are two important things that were expected, it remains for us the problem of the delay of the application of the law," she qualified.

This implementation period, with a gradual disappearance of the GNR tax benefit for construction in three stages from 1 July and until 2022, "it's really a red line", says- we at Bercy where we highlight the need to fight against polluting emissions.

In addition, "we can not dissociate an entry into force for large and small businesses.It is legally risky, otherwise it is very complicated to implement", says one in the entourage of Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire.

According to Ms. Despret, the specific color of the fuel for the construction industry "will prevent theft", while the list of machines that will be obliged to use the said fuel "we will avoid unfair competition" mainly from farmers.

The latter use a GNR already taxed less than that of the construction industry and sometimes use it to perform work when they do not work in the fields or with their animals.

Theft and unfair competition "are major problems," according to Ms. Despret.

"We will make contact tonight with all our departments, put it to the vote, and decisions will surely be made tomorrow in the day," said the president of the CNTAP.

But Ms. Despret added "that apart from the construction, all other sectors (benefiting from a tax relief on diesel and in particular) shipping, are not affected, we are the only ones and we find it unfair" .

In the West, where the deposits of Vern-sur-Seiche, near Rennes, Brest, Lorient, Le Mans were still blocked Monday evening. The demonstrators were to meet at Le Mans in the evening to decide what to do with their movement.

"As long as the government does not understand, we will not give up, and we will go to the fight," said Norbert Guillou, who blocks the deposit of Lorient and calls for a meeting with Prime Minister Édouard Philippe.

In Ille-et-Vilaine, where the deposit of Vern-on-Seiche is blocked since Friday, the prefecture took Monday a decree requisitioning eleven service stations of the department for the services of emergency, relief and care to persons, emergency interventions on distribution networks and for funeral transport.

The blockage results in "a decrease in available fuel stocks in the department and local difficulties in supply," said the prefecture in a statement. The prefecture of Finistère also requisitioned eleven service stations.

The blocks, intended to protest the end of the tax benefit on off-road diesel (GNR), began Thursday afternoon or Thursday night, according to deposits. The blockade of the La Pallice oil depot in La Rochelle, which was lifted on Friday afternoon, resumed in the night from Sunday to Monday.

In Indre-et-Loire, artisans organized a filtering between 10:00 and 17:00 in front of the depot of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, told AFP the company Hubert, which participated in the actions.

© 2019 AFP