JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
INTERVIEW – The Minister of the Economy announced, Sunday January 21, an increase from 8.6% to 9.8% in electricity prices in February. For Loïk Le Floch-Prigent, former president of Gaz de France, we are today paying for the choices of our leaders, such as integration into the European electricity market.
Loïk Le Floch-Prigent is an engineer. He was notably the president of Gaz de France and the SNCF. Latest work published: For an industrial France (ed. Elytel, 2020).
LE FIGARO. – The Minister of the Economy announced, Sunday January 21, an increase from 8.6% to 9.8% in electricity prices in February. Is this decision “necessary” as Bruno Le Maire said?
Loïk LE FLOCH-PRIGENT. – A tax is never “necessary”, and this is a tax levied on each electricity consumer, it is therefore a consumption tax. The state may consider it a good opportunity to fill its coffers, but there was no “necessity” to choose electricity. The chosen adjective is therefore incorrect.
For private consumers, electricity has doubled in a few years. For the average industrialist, this is a multiplication by three to six. The minister forgot to talk about it, but competitiveness has fallen and business failures are increasingly…
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