the essential
A few days before the legislative elections, UFC-Que Choisir has made public its 20 priorities, part of which is structured around the theme of purchasing power. A problem dear to the French. Benjamin Recher, responsible for institutional relations at the association, details these avenues.
Purchasing power is the theme that most concerns the French a few days before the first round of legislative elections. In which areas do you think urgent action is needed?
We have identified several areas in which it is very important to act. The first lever is electricity. We are asking two things on the subject: that regulated electricity taxes be linked to EDF’s production costs. Currently, this is determined by prices on wholesale markets. We consider that from the moment EDF, which has long been a public establishment and a public enterprise, provides financing for electricity, it is normal for this electricity to be as cheap as possible for consumers.
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What about VAT on taxes?
On electricity, the French also pay VAT taxes. It is included in the price base and we consider it a double penalty. The French pay taxes twice and we affirm that VAT must be separated by not including it in the electricity tax base. This would automatically lower the price of electricity paid by consumers.
The rise in food prices is a very sensitive issue for the French, is it a priority in your opinion?
Indeed, this is really the priority since prices in mass distribution have increased enormously, particularly in 2022-2023. Our proposals are based on margins… The gross margin of the agri-food industry increased from 28 to 48% between the end of 2021 and the 2nd quarter of 2023. In particular thanks to what is called the guaranteed minimum margin of 10% applicable in the mass distribution. It is obligatory for all brands which must make a minimum margin of 10% on all the food products they sell. The objective was to better remunerate farmers based on the prices of raw materials, but we know that this does not work. We call for it to be removed without delay. All it takes is a law, that’s one of the things we can do right away.
What are the last levers that you consider to be priorities?
There is that of the banking sector. The legislator must work to regulate bank rates which are sometimes completely disconnected from the costs borne by the banks. We must reduce management fees on current accounts, but also everything related to bank inheritance fees. It’s unconscionable to pay fees when you close an account in the event of your death.
Another point that we really identified as being important is that of the prices applied in EHPADs where places are very expensive. This becomes a determining item of expenditure with out-of-pocket expenses which can exceed 1000 euros in certain cases. Particularly private EHPADs. We then ask the public authorities to put a dependency shield on the same model of the tariff shield in order to limit the remaining costs for families.
Why did you focus on these specific levers?
They correspond to historical requests from our association. These are subjects on which we have been working for a very long time with requests that we are pushing to different governments, deputies and senators. And within the framework of the legislative elections, we wanted to postpone these requests to the various candidates.
About the candidates, what do you think of their promises in terms of purchasing power?
We are an apolitical and independent association, so we do not publicly position ourselves in relation to the programs of others. Even if, of course, we have positions to defend. As UFC, we will look at what happens after July 7, we will look at the proposals put on the table or not concerning the concerns of consumers, and then we will judge on the actions.
