On the night of November 8 to 9, the National Assembly voted in favor of the amendment to the budget establishing a tax on vaping, before moderating it. Many observers then considered that they had done well. Big mistake.
The end tax
These were two votes in the National Assembly, at two a.m., in front of 138 deputies, which decided the future of French vaping. The first, an amendment proposed by Charles de Courson, established the principle of a tax on vaping, at 15 cents per milliliter. The second, signed Christine Loir, lowered the amount to 5 cents per milliliter.
But the tax will not only result in an increase in the price per bottle.
Until now, vaping was within the remit of the Ministry of Health. But the establishment of an excise tax places vaping under the control of the customs service, and which itself depends on Bercy, the Ministry of the Economy and Budget, quite simply by making it change its code. From the health code, the regulation on vaping now enters the tax code.
Bercy is a small state within a state, and it is there that the tobacco, pharmacy and tobacconist lobbies find the most attentive ears. In strictly economic logic, the ear is most attentive to the one who brings in the most money. Suffice to say that, to extend the metaphor, vaping will barely be treated like tinnitus.
But, in addition, vaping, as a specifically taxed product, no longer falls into the category “current consumption”. Without yet entering the category of tobacco, it becomes, in fact, a product with specific characteristics, based on nicotine, subject to an excise tax.
From then on, it becomes impossible for any official organization to promote it as part of smoking cessation. Unless we have an extremely motivated and activist Minister of Health, who receives the blessing of an equally motivated and activist Prime Minister and President, once taxed, vaping as a smoking cessation device will disappear from official reports .
Finally, an excise tax gives an argument to opponents of vaping: “it’s taxed like tobacco, so it’s the same”. By virtue of Brandolini’s principle which states that correcting false information requires infinitely more time and energy than telling it, and given the misinformation of the general public, any attempt to create a positive image of vaping stops there.
Historically, a tax is never destined to disappear, only to increase. Even provisional taxes often become permanent.
A vaper who would be delighted that the tax is ultimately “only” five cents is in the situation of a rabbit targeted by a hunter who is delighted that the latter has already shot, so he will only receive one bullet.
Hope?
If the tax has been passed, there is still hope: it will go to the Senate, which will reject amendments, before returning to the National Assembly. With any luck, it will have to be voted on again, and the MPs from the left and the center, who are opposed to it, will be present this time.
The government also has the possibility of appealing to article 49-3, or article 47, which allows it to decree its budget by ordinance if the 70-day deadline is exceeded in voting on the budget. And as we have seen, the government is against the tax, which would undoubtedly go into the trash.
The definitive answer is November 20: beyond this date, the budget must be final. Until then, everything is still possible.
In the meantime, for those who say to themselves that we have escaped the worst and that 5 cents is fine: these five cents are the price of the entire independent sector, of public health, of 200 tobacco deaths per day, and most likely your job. Which, it must be recognized, in the context of inflation in ours, is remarkable.
