Gas prices: Will taxes increase? ? Government squabbles

Agnès Pannier-Runacher had stated that the government was going to propose an increase in taxation eacute; on gas via an amendment to the draft finance bill. A proposal dismissed by Laurent Saint-Martin who assures that this is not planned.

The finance bill has been presented and the Barnier government wants to increase state revenues, in particular by increasing taxes on certain items, such as electricity. On Friday, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention, said that an amendment could be added to the finance bill, providing for an increase in gas taxation. Concretely, this would mean that the gas tax would increase, thus helping to increase state revenues, but therefore increasing the gas bill. The minister did not give any details on the amount of the increase in this tax.

But Laurent Saint-Martin, Minister for the Budget and Public Accounts, does not approve of this proposal. Questioned on this subject on TF1, Saturday November 12, he corrected the situation: Agnès Pannier-Runacher “said that there might be amendments on the increase in gas taxation", before assuring that the draft finance bill “does not contain an increase in gas taxation". It should be noted that amendments allow proposals to be added to a draft bill the study.

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What are the consequences on French bills?

The Prime Minister was very clear when tackling the 2025 budget: savings will have to be made and state revenues increased. To increase revenues, the French should, if the budget is passed, be made to contribute through taxes. According to Laurent Saint-Martin, the gas tax should not increase. In addition, the International Energy Agency (IEA) assures that the price of gas should fall in 2025 in Europe, due to the increase in supplies from the United States and Qatar. As a reminder, the price of gas had increased sharply in 2021 and 2022 in Europe, affected by the energy crisis that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. If no increase in gas taxation is ultimately observed, gas bills should therefore be lower in 2025.

Concerning the price of electricity, Laurent Saint-Martin makes a clarification. There will indeed be an increase in taxation in this area, that is to say an increase in taxes, but the bill will still go down: “The electricity bill of our fellow citizens who are on the regulated tariff will go down by around 9% from February 1st.” This will be possible thanks to the drop in the cost of electricity which will absorb the increase in the tax. This means the end of the tariff shield, put in place during the energy crisis.