Bruno Le Maire promises that the increase will not exceed 10%. In February, the electricity bill is expected to increase for households, while prices on wholesale markets fall. What is this paradox due to? For LFI MP Hadrien Clouet, the culprit is to be found in the European energy market, he explained on Sunday on the social network X.
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This increase, the exact percentage of which has not yet been announced by the government, is due not to this European mechanism denounced by the elected official, but to an increase in a tax. In the finance bill for 2024, the government has in fact provided for the possibility of increasing the amount of the fraction collected on electricity (FPE), the new name of the TIFCE (Internal final consumption tax on electricity ). In 2022, the government lowered this tax to one euro per megawatt hour, a measure which was part of the tariff shield intended to protect households from the increase in electricity prices which were then current on the wholesale markets. This tax previously amounted to almost 26 euros per megawatt hour.
The end of “whatever it takes” having come for the government, it therefore introduced the possibility of increasing the tax in the 2024 finance law. However, there is no question of returning to the pre-fiscal shield level, defended the Minister for the Budget, Thomas Cazenave, in November, who was worried about an increase that would be too high for households if that were the case.
The increase will therefore be a maximum of 10%, promised the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire on several occasions, an announcement which he renewed this Monday. The exact increase has, however, not yet been announced: the Energy Regulatory Commission was to hear this Monday “the stakeholders” in the calculation of the price of electricity, its president, Emmanuelle Wargon, recalled on Friday. Capital. “We will then send a tariff proposal to the new government, which will make the decision whether or not to increase the taxes, and, therefore, the tariff. »
At the height of the rise in wholesale electricity prices, many opposition figures, such as MP Hadrien Clouet, called for the exit or adjustment of the European energy market. A path which would not be the miracle solution to high bills, specialists then explained to 20 minutes.