Fuel prices: Castex announces an “inflation allowance” of 100 euros for 38 million French people – Le HuffPost

POOL New via Reuters

CONSUMPTION – The government has finally decided. To fight against rising energy prices, the Prime Minister Jean Castex announced this Thursday, October 21 an “inflation allowance of 100 euros which will be paid to French people who earn less than 2,000 euros net per month”, which corresponds to the median salary in France. It is “a middle class allowance, for people who work or the unemployed looking for work and retirees”, he added.

How to benefit from it? The 38 million French people concerned “will have nothing to do”, assured the head of government. “It will be automatic, details will be given in the coming days”, he said, explaining that the system “will go through companies for employees, the MSA for farmers, for the self-employed by Urssaf” .

Faced with the rise in prices, the Government has chosen the most fair and efficient system.
38 million French people who earn less than € 2,000 net per month will receive an “inflation allowance” of € 100 per person.
No action will be necessary. pic.twitter.com/0kMG2pYao6

– Jean Castex (@JeanCASTEX) October 21, 2021

Jean Castex compared this amount of 100 euros, to counteract inflation in general, to a sum of 80 euros which he assimilates to the bill, on average, of the increase in fuels over the year (based on on 9 cents per liter more at the pump over the year and an average distance traveled by the French of 14,000 kilometers).

It is the “fairest, most efficient” solution, he said, which applies to motorists and others, to those who go to work by car or not.

A premium paid from December

This bonus will be paid all at once, in December for employees, at the end of January for civil servants, and “a little later” for retirees. “We will do our utmost to ensure that it happens quickly on the payrolls ”, he still promised. The Prime Minister did not mention the students.

“This will cost 3.8 billion euros” to the State, added the Prime Minister, from which it is necessary to subtract an additional VAT revenue of one billion, he said.

“The preservation of purchasing power is our guiding fact”, he justified while assuring that France would keep its commitments in terms of public deficit. The government announced “a deficit of 5%, therefore sharply reduced compared to 2021, in 2022, we will keep this objective”, he asserted.

The price of gas blocked throughout 2022

Jean Castex had to arbitrate between a fuel check or a reduction in taxes, the two tracks on which Matignon and Bercy have been working in recent days. But this last option was not the preferred route.

Prices at the pump rose another 2 cents last week, reaching historically high levels at 1.56 euros per liter for diesel on average, and 1.62 euros for unleaded petrol containing up to 10% ethanol ( SP95-E10). Prices exceeded those of fall 2018, when the yellow vests movement started.

Jean Castex also announced that the gas price in France will be blocked “throughout the year 2022”, and not only until April 2022, because the experts “tell us that the decline will probably be slower than expected”.

See also on The HuffPost: There will be no constitutional reform on the climate, concedes Castex