2023-06-19 16:19:51
The hardest part begins. After three years of “whatever it takes”, the government on Monday laid the groundwork for the first cuts in public spending, with the aim of generating 10 to 15 billion euros in savings next year for meet its budget targets.
The figure may seem modest, while public spending has increased by nearly 100 billion in three years. “The challenge is high”, however warned Bruno Le Maire, at the opening of the Assises des finances publics. This great budgetary rout which was held in Bercy was to symbolically mark the opening of a new strategy for public finances, after the last years turned upside down by the multiple crises.
Sign of the new priority given to the subject, Elisabeth Borne had made the trip to Bercy for the occasion, which rarely happens. “Today I am giving you a speech of the truth, in particular on the issues of the closure of the next budget, which will require difficult choices”, warned the Prime Minister.
Spade addressed to LR
In this new discourse, certain elements do not change for all that. “We will not fall for easy tax increases,” said Elisabeth Borne, repeating once again the government mantra on the subject. The executive also wants to emphasize all the reforms – unemployment insurance, pensions, green industry, etc. – supposed to boost activity and the tax revenues that go with it. “We must first think of the means of creating wealth, rather than the means of collecting ever more taxes”, underlined Bruno Le Maire. “We always redistribute more and we always produce less, it takes a mental revolution to get out of this logic”, warns a close friend of the Minister of the Economy.
Beyond that, to meet the budgetary objectives – with a deficit supposed to drop from -4.9% of GDP this year to -4.4% next year then -2.7% in 2027 – it will above all be necessary to find hard and fast savings. “Let’s stop pretending that better control of state medical aid spending or the fight against tax evasion will be enough to balance our accounts”, launched Bruno Le Maire, in an explicit spade addressed to the members of LR.
The executive promises for its part to have put in place an effective and long-term strategy to influence the trajectory of public spending. Present on Monday, the first president of the Court of Auditors Pierre Moscovici warned that “the current objectives represent an unprecedented effort to control public spending of around 12 billion euros each year”, until 2027 “It could be more,” we reply to Bercy, where we don’t hide the fact that we are looking for 10 to 15 billion in savings for next year.
Tax greening
Where to find them? The end of the tariff shield on gas (which stops this month and will have cost 2.3 billion euros in 2023) or the pressure put on Ondam (national objective for health insurance expenditure) should be there. contribute. But Bercy has above all launched an exercise – the expenditure review – called to be renewed every year, to target certain expenditure deemed less effective. This first exercise made it possible to identify “at least 10 billion euros in savings”, according to the Minister of the Economy, by 2027.
It is from this reservoir that the government should draw to meet its budgetary objectives from the 2024 finance law. The first area explored is the greening of fuel taxation. It is a question of returning to the advantages granted to road transport, non-road non-agricultural (BTP) and agricultural diesel. The subject is politically sensitive, however, and the ramp-up will be gradual, with limited effects on 2024.
Pressure on healthcare costs
The second project concerns three public policies, deemed too expensive. On housing, the government has already announced that it wants to abolish the Pinel system and refocus the PTZ (zero rate loan), with however there too a limited impact in 2024. State operators are also targeted, and in particular their cash flow which would have swelled from 35 to 65 billion euros in 4 years. Finally, while unemployment continues to decline, Bercy is putting pressure on the Ministry of Labor to plan several employment aids, above all on learning and the personal training account. This track on employment is one of those that should contribute the most to savings next year.
This is also the case – third project – of “the accountability of actors in terms of healthcare expenditure”, on which Bruno Le Maire insisted a lot. This expression first targets the soaring sick leave expenses, which the executive wants to put an end to. This could involve an increase in the number of waiting days payable by employers.
But the Minister of Economy also points the finger at health costs and “free or almost free which can lead to disempowering the patient”. Bercy is thus pushing to increase the remainder payable on the price of the drug, which has remained at 50 cents per box since 2008.
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