The day after Michel Barnier’s general policy speech, the first outlines of the 2025 budget are beginning to become clearer. In particular, taxes on polluting transport are planned, Le Figaro reported.
During his general policy speech, Michel Barnier mentioned the “3,228 billion” of public debt, warning of the risk of a country “on the edge of the precipice”. Thus, while the public deficit will amount to more than 6% of GDP in 2024, the Prime Minister wishes to bring it back “at 5%” next year. While the 2025 draft budget will be presented on October 10, the government is planning an effort of 60 billion euros, which includes taxing polluting transport, including thermal vehicles, reported Le Figaro.
Wednesday October 2, on the set of BFMTV, the Minister Delegate in charge of Transport, François Durovray, warned that there must be “a more ecological tax system to enable us to succeed in the transition“. In the next finance bill, the government therefore plans to tax thermal vehicles more and more. Also, the penalty on the weight of vehicles could also appear in the text. The World specifies that a lowering of the threshold at which the penalty is triggered could be implemented gradually until 2027. While the maximum amount of the tax could be increased from year to year. Electric and hybrid vehicles would then be the only ones not taxed.
On Radio Classique, Tuesday October 1, the reaction of the president of the Automobile Platform, Luc Châtel, was not long in coming. According to him, this is a “disguised tax” inflicted on motorists.
Air transport also targeted
On air transport, additional taxes may be applied. According to the president of the National Federation of Aviation and its Trades (Fnam), Pascal de Izaguirre, this taxation would “over a billion euros”. He indicated that this will be reflected “on ticket prices”.
Thus, in total, all these ecological measures must bring in 1.5 billion euros to the State in 2025, out of a total of 60 billion in budgetary efforts.
