The excise, one of the taxes paid by natural gas suppliers, will almost double from January 1, 2024. This tax will increase from 8.45 euros to 16.37 euros per MWh from 2024. Mechanically, the price of gas for consumption should increase, while Bruno Le Maire reassured that this would have no impact on the consumer.
Suppliers of natural gas will therefore have to pay the excise almost double its current rate, from January 1, 2024. The normal rate of excise on natural gas for fuel use, which has replaced the internal tax of consumption on natural gas, will increase to 16.37 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) from January 1, compared to 8.45 euros currently, according to a decree published on Saturday in Official newspaper. This price corresponds to the ceiling authorized by the 2024 finance law, published the same day in Official newspaper.
Lifting of the price shield on gas
This therefore confirms the end of the tariff shield on this energy, as suggested by the Minister of the Economy, Bruno the Mayor, in April 2023. “The measure limiting the increase in the price of electricity will only end by early 2025,” announced Bruno Le Maire. On the other hand, the gas system must stop during the year”, reported France info. “ There is no longer any reason to freeze gas prices,” had also justified the minister on LCI, because “ prices have returned to the pre-crisis situation.”
Specialists predict a price increase of 8 euros per MWh
It is therefore done with the almost doubling of this tax. Except that if Bruno Le Maire assured, on September 14, that this increase in this tax would be “without impact on the consumer”, specialists are far from sharing this optimism. “For half of gas subscribers who have opted for a fixed price tariff offer, the increase in excise duty will lead to an increase in the gas bill of around 8 euros per megawatt hour”explains to Agence France-Presse Nicolas Goldberg, analyst specializing in energy at Colombus Consulting.
However, ” for the other half of consumers, who have so-called “bridge” offers, based on an index which varies every month, the increase in the bill can be avoided », specifies the analyst. Nicolas Goldberg forecasts this prospect by banking on the downward trend in gas prices which “ will compensate for the increase in excise duty.
As a reminder, since July 2023, there are no longer regulated gas sales prices which allowed the government to intervene to limit the increase in prices. It’s a price “landmark” of the Energy Regulatory Commission, updated every month, based on market prices, which serves as a basis for determining the trend. And the latter, in view of the projected data, concerns less optimistic probabilities of avoiding an upward revaluation of the price of gas on the bill, the specialists predict.