The Union of Independent Artisan Bakers has announced, through its lawyer, to seize the Council of State for an extension of the tariff shield.
By IM with AFP
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Ahen many merchants, whose needs for electricity or gas are significant, are severely confronted with the explosion of energy prices, a group of bakers decided to protest and seize the Council of State so that the shield tariff, which limits the increase to 15% for certain sectors, is extended to all bakers, said Wednesday 1is march their attorney in a statement. Bakers, whose activity is energy-intensive, are particularly mobilized and some had already demonstrated at the end of January to ask for more aid from the government, following weeks of meetings and arrests.
This initiative comes from the Union of Independent Artisan Bakers, recently created by nine bakers across France to “alert the public authorities and obtain concrete help from the government” in order to cope with the rise in prices, which have been multiplied by “4 to 10”.
“A distortion of competition” between bakers
“Since 2020, artisan bakers have had to deal in quick succession with the Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to a spectacular drop in their turnover due to confinement, a rise in the price of raw materials (in particular butter and wheat) and a spike in energy prices, they explain in the text.
READ ALSOArtus – Inflation: why you should be wary of overly optimistic predictionsAccording to them, the measures put in place by the government are not enough and create “a distortion of competition between artisan bakers consuming less than 36 kVA, who can benefit from the tariff shield capping the increase for 2023 at 15%, and artisan bakers with a power greater than 36kVA, which are excluded. For the latter, the government has announced an “electricity buffer” which benefits SMEs and a price cap of 280 euros per megawatt hour for energy-intensive VSEs. According to executive estimates, the shock absorber should relieve contractors of 15 to 20% of their electricity bill, which the state pays for.
READ ALSOArtus – Energy prices: why Europe cannot rejoice yetBut for the collective of bakers, its implementation is “of such complexity that even the electricity suppliers do not know how to use it” and the beneficiaries must all the same advance the costs “without being certain of receiving a day the promised aid”. They thus fear temporary closures, layoffs and consequently less coverage of certain territories, in the face of competition from large retailers. Their lawyer, Christophe Lèguevaques, indicates that he has filed an interim order with the aim of extending to all artisan bakers the benefit of the “tariff shield”.