Faced with ever-increasing energy bills, the government’s immediate challenge will be to support the middle class, which is not (yet) covered by the social tariff for electricity and gas. “We think, in the PS, that we need an increase in net purchasing power of at least 100 euros to be able to cope with the increase in energy prices”, defended the Secretary of State on Tuesday morning. Thomas Dermine at the microphone of Bel RTL radio.
Additional measures to, on the one hand, reduce the energy bill of citizens and businesses and, on the other hand, increase wages (“via an increase in flat-rate costs or via tax credits, for example”) , are in any case to be discussed in the government, he believes. “The PS will put this on the table tomorrow, at the Consultation Committee,” added the Secretary of State for Recovery.
In La Libre Belgique of the same day, he details: the socialists will propose, for workers in “income deciles 3 to 5, up to incomes of around 2,200 euros net, just below the median salary”, to raise the costs flat-rate professionals, “of the order of 100 to 150 euros net in the pocket, via tax mechanisms to be decided”. “However, we must be careful how we raise the flat-rate deduction for certain categories of workers, because this can impact municipal and regional finances, which are already in the red. We are more in favor of this measure than an increase in the tax-exempt portion, which affects everyone, whether they have little or a lot of income. Isn’t that progressive? What we offer can be,” he adds.
The idea is that the measures benefit those who really need them, also with regard to fuel prices. Playing on excise duties benefits everyone, including big polluters, and is expensive, points out Thomas Dermine. “We would like to target the measure, once more for workers, by raising the reimbursement of mileage costs. The idea would be to modify the law on employment contracts to align the reimbursement of minimum mileage costs with that of the public service, namely 0.37 euro per kilometer. »
