Matignon had admitted it in March: the discount of 18 cents at the pump was an emergency measure to enable rapid action in the face of soaring fuel prices. But you should think about “something lasting after July 31”. The services of Bercy therefore continued to work during the campaign to develop a new measure in favor of the households most exposed to the rise in prices. The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, confirmed this on Franceinfo, Monday April 25, the day after an election dominated by questions of purchasing power in a context of inflation: “We will maintain a device on fuel because prices at the pump continue to be very high. »
The rebate of 18 euro cents, in force since the beginning of April, is ” efficient “, judges the minister, but devices “more effective because more targeted would be more relevant, because the current system “benefits everyone, regardless of income level” or its transport constraints: “The 18 cents isn’t bad, but having more significant and more targeted aid seems to me to be fairer and more effective. » The objective is to be ready for the month of July, when the next government will present its amending budget. Even if everything is obviously likely to be called into question in the short term: “It may be that in a few days I will no longer be finance minister or no longer in government,” reminded Bruno Le Maire.
Whatever the configuration of the future government, and the identity of the next tenant of Bercy, a reflection will have to be undertaken since the “discount at the pump” must end at the end of July, and that the prices do not seem to want to flow back. Above all, the executive has been faced with the same difficulty since the fall: finding the measure targeting households that are both the most exposed to rising prices and identified as the most fragile. A technically complex equation, the administration not having directly exploitable data which would make it possible to identify the persons concerned. “We have done all the technical work to be able to cross-reference data between your level of income, the vehicle you have and the consumption of the vehicle, the number of kilometers you travel”, explained Bruno Le Maire on Monday.
The inflation check under attack
For lack of being able to reach the desired population, the executive has multiplied in recent months gestures of various kinds to cover a wide spectrum of needs and beneficiaries, at the risk of helping non-priority populations, and “burn the cash register”, according to the right – the measures announced since the fall total nearly 30 billion euros. The inflation check, this sum of 100 euros paid to 38 million households in recent months and called “Middle class allowance” by the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, was particularly attacked by the opposition, the left judging it badly targeted, the right too expensive. The revaluation of kilometer scale in January, reserved for taxable households, was also heavily criticized, the Socialist MP Valérie Rabault estimating that 14.5 million people had been excluded.
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