“If the State adds taxes to us, we will reconsider the measure.” In an interview with ActuLyon, the head of Totalenergies, Patrick Pouyanné, threatened this Friday not to extend the price limit per liter of gasoline to 1.99 euros at the oil group’s gas stations.
At issue: the fear of seeing his group exposed to new taxes while the government does not rule out renewing the “temporary solidarity contribution” of the refineries within the framework of the discussions on the 2024 finance bill. consists of taking the 33 % of the profits of oil companies as long as they are more than 20% higher than the average for the years 2019-2021.
“If the government wants to impose taxes, I don’t know if we will increase them”
At the moment, only one amendment has been presented aimed at expanding the contribution to the inframarginal income affecting electricity producers. But in a context of rising prices at the pump, Bruno Le Maire declared himself willing to also renew the tax on oil superprofits in 2024: “We have a question about the amount of refining margins. (…) We will take all necessary decisions to avoid excessive profits,” declared the Minister of Economy on France Info in mid-September.
“We put a solidarity contribution from the sector in the 2023 budget. We already did it. We are capable of doing it (…) We do not exclude any response, this can be part of it,” the Minister of Public Accounts Tomás Cazenave had also indicated.
The fuel price cap of 1.99 euros per liter, which should end at the end of 2023, has been extended until 2024, Totalenergies announced a few weeks ago. “But if (the Government) also wants to impose taxes on refining, I don’t know if we will expand it,” Patrick Pouyanné warned this Friday.
“Our measure is effective”
“We have made the decision to protect the French and it works, since 2,500 stations are affected by the 1.99 euro. How do we do it? Not because we make money from refining. We do it because TotalEnergies is based in France and We decided that. “On a business level, protect the French because we have a link with the country. We don’t do this in all countries,” the manager recalled.
And say “convinced that the correct method is for Total to directly benefit the consumer with the effort we are making and not through taxes. Our measure is effective, that is what I see in the surveys.”
Source: BFM TV
