Driven by the Nestlé Waters treated water scandal and putting forward an ecological argument, elected officials in the upper house voted for an amendment to increase VAT from 5.5% to 20% on these bottles.
Millions of plastic bottles for water that is not always very “natural”… The Senate voted on the night of Wednesday November 27 to Thursday November 28 to increase VAT on bottled water, a measure intended to encourage consumers to favor tap water against a backdrop of scandal over the practices of mineral water manufacturers. The upper house voted by a show of hands for this measure in the draft budget for 2025, against the advice of the government. The Minister of Public Accounts Laurent Saint-Martin opposed it, arguing that VAT was not “not an incentive tax tool”.
“In a context where the question of natural resource management, corporate responsibility and ecological issues are really at the heart of the debates, it has become necessary to rethink this tax policy”launched the socialist Hervé Gillé, assuming to defend this measure “in view of the concerns raised by the Nestlé Waters scandal ».
Treated water
The subsidiary of the Swiss agri-food giant admitted in January to having used prohibited disinfection systems to maintain the “food safety” of its mineral waters. Revelations, relayed by the press, which shined the spotlight on the practices of manufacturers in the sector, leading in particular the Senate to launch a commission of inquiry on the subject at the beginning of autumn, aimed in particular at investigating the use prohibited filtration processes.
The amendment voted by the Senate, carried by Macronist senator Nadège Havet, proposes to eliminate the reduced VAT rate on water in plastic bottles, currently set at 5.5% and which would therefore increase to 20%. While preserving bottled water sold overseas from this measure, several departments are facing a chronic crisis in the distribution of drinking water on tap, particularly in Guadeloupe and Mayotte. Senators estimated that the measure could bring in between 150 and 300 million euros per year.
