After capping gasoline prices to address inflation, the government decided to sell fuel at a loss. A measure far from being unanimous among distributors.
“As far as I know, not everyone has spoken,” Clément Beaune put things in perspective this Wednesday on France Info. And “competition may push some to take advantage of it when others start to do so,” he said.
In the face of numerous criticisms, the Minister of Transport defended the measure that should be ready “at the end of November or beginning of December” so that “it can be one more tool in the fight for purchasing power in the short term.”
He also recalled that the possibility of distributors selling fuel at a loss is added to other measures adopted to support motorists against the increase in prices at the pump: “There is a measure that has already been adopted by Total and that is important and which, at the request of the Government, was expanded by the general director of Total: it is the limit of 1.99 euros, a measure that serves the consumer.
“Allow the French to go electric in particular”
“There are other operations that are already being carried out at cost price,” Clément Beaune also indicated. But according to him, “the best purchasing power measure we will take this autumn” to relieve motorists, “is to allow the French to switch to electric vehicles”, in particular by reinforcing “the ecological bonus for electric cars”.
Citing fuel discounts or controls applied in recent months, the Transport Minister said that “no other European country” had done as much as France to protect households from rising fuel prices. But the necessary sobriety of public spending means that “today we mobilize, it is another strategy, companies,” concluded Clément Beaune.
Source: BFM TV
