2023-12-18 06:30:00
The Senate is considering on Monday the extension until the end of 2024 of an exemption which allows restaurant vouchers to be used to purchase all food products, with final adoption possible in Parliament in the evening.
The text, presented as a measure to combat still high inflation, has already been adopted by the National Assembly. And the senators have a good chance of keeping the same editorial version as the deputies to allow definitive adoption of this proposed law on meal vouchers which can then come into force as quickly as possible, before January 1.
Used by 5.4 million French people
The system, which allows restaurant vouchers to be used to purchase all food products, was put in place in 2022. It is supposed to expire on December 31, 2023. It allows some 5.4 million employees in France to use their “restaurant vouchers” to buy non-directly consumable products on the shelves (flour, pasta, rice, meat, etc.), whereas they are normally reserved for only directly consumable products in addition to restaurants.
Parliamentarians had sounded the alarm in recent weeks when this exemption could have disappeared without an urgent vote from them in both chambers of Parliament.
In the Senate, several environmentalist and centrist senators still tabled an amendment to limit the extension to six months – to June 30, 2024. If it were voted on, a joint joint committee (CMP) would then have to be convened very quickly with a view to reach a compromise between deputies and senators before the end of the year.
What are the expectations?
However, this is not the wish of Les Républicains rapporteur Marie-Do Aeschlimann, who wishes to stick to the initial version while saying she is in favor of a global reflection with a view to a broader reform of the meal voucher, which the government also promised.
“Consumption patterns and the expectations of employees during their lunch breaks have changed,” the senator explained to AFP, noting “a propensity to want to do their shopping and cook something”, particularly in the context of the development of telework.
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