2024-01-27 08:30:38
It’s a retreat into open countryside. Faced with the explosion of anger from the agricultural world, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal nimbly buried the increase in taxes on non-road diesel (GNR). This gradual increase by 2030 was however the subject of an agreement between the government and the FNSEA at the end of the summer. It was then included in the finance law for 2024. It is no longer relevant. “We are going to stop with this increase trajectory on the GNR,” declared the head of government on Friday, during a trip to Montastruc-de-Salies (Haute-Garonne).
Farmers will therefore continue to benefit from the entire tax rebate on their “red diesel”, that is to say they will continue to pay only 3.86 euro cents of TICPE (domestic consumption tax). on petroleum products) per liter of fuel to refuel their tractors and other agricultural machinery. This boost is substantial: the general public pays 60.75 cents of TICPE per liter. The tax loophole for agricultural diesel thus represents a cost of 1.4 billion euros for public finances.
Haro on “brown niches”
Last year, to show that it was active in the climate transition, the government resolved to attack this “brown niche”. After having given up on removing the tax advantage on the GNR of road hauliers – too threatened by international competition – he ended up finding an agreement with representatives of the public works sector and with the agricultural world. The first had agreed to see its taxes rise in seven years to the normal level. The second to go a third of the way, by increasing taxes on farmers’ diesel by 2.85 cents per liter each year until 2030.
Very careful not to let it be said that he was increasing taxes, the Minister of the Economy then assured that the additional revenue (70 million euros per year for agricultural diesel) would be paid in full to those concerned. “This reform of the GNR did not save the State any money,” argues Gabriel Attal’s office. However, “The entire redistribution system in reality was not balanced, particularly with regard to small farms. Continuing the simplification process, the Prime Minister announced that we were abandoning this increase in the GNR.”
“No environmental setback”
To gain the support of the agricultural world, the Prime Minister even made an additional gesture, ensuring that by summer the rebate would be directly applied to the pump. Until now, farmers paid the same price as public works professionals – whose tax advantage is lower – and were only reimbursed the difference the following year by the State. They will no longer have to provide this cash advance. And while waiting for the summer, the State will pay them half of the annual advance in February, or 215 million euros.
One thing seems clear: at a time of highway blockages by angry farmers, the “greening” of taxation, praised by Bercy in the fall, is no longer the priority. “There is no setback in environmental terms,” we argue at Matignon. The increase in RNG is not an essential element to accelerate the decarbonization of the agricultural sector, because for tractors for example, there is no technology today to easily switch from RNG to electric.”
The fact remains that Gabriel Attal’s regarding-face on the agricultural GNR has not brought down the fever in the countryside. And in the immediate future, it risks making environmental defenders especially unhappy and public works professionals jealous. The latter already had a lower tax advantage on diesel than that of farmers and had agreed to absorb it much more quickly.
After the government’s retreats in front of the truckers, then in front of the farmers, can this last domino remain standing? “Regarding the announcements on GNR, it would be incomprehensible and unfair if the construction sector did not benefit from this measure and alone paid the price for phasing out fossil fuels,” the confederation of building craftsmen reacted on Friday ( CAPEB).
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