2023-11-15 13:40:58
After announcing the end of the use of meal vouchers for food products in supermarkets at the end of 2023, the government backpedaled under pressure from parliamentarians who saw it as a bad signal in the midst of inflation. The French should therefore be able to continue using them to do their shopping in 2024, to the great dismay of restaurateurs who denounce a misuse of the system.
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This is the controversy that has embarrassed the government in recent days. Since the law of August 16, 2022, in addition to spending them in restaurants, it was possible to use your meal vouchers to do your shopping in store (flour, pasta, meat, etc.). An emergency measure which had been taken to protect the purchasing power of the French which has been undermined, particularly since the health crisis. Today used by 5 million employees, meal vouchers are financed between 50% and 60% by the employer, who benefits in exchange from an exemption from social security contributions.
The government initially planned to end this system at the end of the year. But faced with the bronca of parliamentarians, the government spokesperson, Olivia Grégoire, backtracked on Tuesday, November 14: “It will continue throughout the year 2024,” she announced on the channel M6 television.
In recent days, the opposition and government have mutually blamed each other for such a decision. This is a “socially dramatic measure for millions of French people caught by the throat by inflation. This indifference to suffering is no longer acceptable”, protested Marine Le Pen on the social network X. Hadrien Clouet, LFI deputy for Haute-Garonne, denounced “a financial and health scandal”.
After the refusal of a 0% VAT for 100 essential products that we are demanding, the government is taking a socially dramatic measure for millions of French people caught by the throat by inflation. This indifference to suffering is no longer acceptable. https://t.co/5Ay2UwakAN
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) November 14, 2023
For his part, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, denounced, on Wednesday, the wait-and-see position of the senators: “It was a decision of the Senate to stop it until December 31 and of the government to extend it for one year.”
Restaurateurs denounce misuse of meal vouchers
Guest of the CNews morning show, the minister even said he was open to the evolution of the regulations on the meal voucher: “Should we not use the meal voucher in a more global way for purchase of food products? Shouldn’t we change this name which is a little misleading? With a single obsession, that it corresponds to people’s expectations”, he declared.
Statements that do not pass muster among the representatives of the restaurant industry, who denounce a misuse of the meal voucher: “It’s a very good session of backpedaling by the government. I think we need to stop calling it the meal voucher , because it is an inflation security […]. Restaurant is for going to a restaurant, not for shopping […]. Restaurateurs are not an adjustment variable”, criticized this morning on France info Franck Devaux, president of UMIH Île-de-France. According to the hotel trades union, “only 4% of titles- restaurant are used in the restaurant” today.
Inflation marker
For the president of the Gira Conseil firm, Bernard Boutboul, a consumer expert contacted by France 24, “the meal voucher has become a marker of inflation for a year and a half, and we have completely diverted its initial meaning”. Since the Covid-19 crisis and the rise in energy costs, the French have been facing high food inflation.
I completely agree and it doesn’t just affect students! I work in a public organization where the salary is low and not indexed to inflation. I need my restaurant voucher budget to do my daily food shopping and eat properly.
— Ma stars Maud (@Maudmastars) November 13, 2023
According to INSEE, this reached 8% over one year in October: “Certainly, the speed of inflation is slowing down, but the rise in prices remains very high”, nuance Bernard Boutboul. Inflation on fresh fruit and fish even accelerated in October. And the consumption specialist is not very optimistic for the months to come: “With the flooding in Pas-de-Calais, the harvests will be bad,” he believes.
Three LR senators announced on the social network employees to pay for meals or food services with some 234,000 approved merchants.
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