Diesel and "punitive ecology": amnesia of Ségolène Royal

Ségolène Royal, who was on Monday 23 October the guest of RTL, criticized the policy of"Punitive ecology" from the Philippe government and deplored the rise in fuel taxes, especially on diesel. In pbading, the one who is now ambbadador for international negotiations for the Arctic and Antarctic poles forgets that the current measures are largely an extension of her actions as Minister of the Environment, between 2014 and 2017.

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Why is diesel now as expensive as gas?

1 – Diesel-gas convergence, a movement initiated by … Ségolène Royal

What she said :

"This taxation on gasoline and diesel is just doing extra taxes, and using ecology to make extra taxes is not fair. "

The alignment of taxation between diesel and gasoline was not decided abruptly in October. This is one of Emmanuel Macron's campaign commitments, which announced it in early 2017.

Why is it amnesia?

In fact, this rapprochement between fuel prices was started under the previous government in 2015, that is to say, three years ago, when Ségolène Royal was Minister of the Environment.

The former minister – who had said she was opposed to the idea before changing her mind after joining the Valls government – also referred to this measure on RTL, saying that she had planned, at the time , "The decline of one cent per year in the price of gasoline and the rise of one cent of the price of diesel". However, this calculation is underestimated since this increase was added with an increase in the fuel tax (TICPE) decided to mitigate the financial impact of the abandonment of the eco-tax, and a change in calculation for better integrate carbon dioxide (CO₂).

In all, Ségolène Royal calculated in January 2016 in front of the deputies that the increase was "For diesel at 4 cents per liter" and that this evolution "Began the convergence between the taxation of diesel and that of gasoline". The minister had even gone further and talked about going ahead with a ban on diesel fuel.

2 – Encourage the purchase of greener cars? An idea developed by … Ségolène Royal

What she said :

"Can overnight drivers sell their cars to buy an electric car or a hybrid car? The answer is no. "

Why is it amnesia?

No one disputes that it is difficult to change cars "Overnight" because it is an expensive purchase. But it is strange that it is Ségolène Royal who is surprised, because it was she who, when she was at the Ministry of Ecology in 2015, had revived the premium for ecological conversion, imagined in 2009, and precisely intended to help individuals buy a greener vehicle, by scrapping its old polluting car. A bonus of € 10,000 was also paid for the purchase of an electric vehicle.

Under Macron's presidency, this aid was reduced to 6,000 euros. On the other hand, the ecological conversion premium was extended to the purchase of a used car, and increased to 1,000 euros, and even 2,000 euros for non-taxable households. According to the government, this bonus has benefited 200,000 households in 2018.

This is not enough to fully finance the purchase of a greener vehicle, but these premiums have had a very clear effect on diesel engine sales, which collapsed from 1.5 million in 2010 to less than a million new vehicles in 2017. Hybrid and electric engines emerge, however, more timidly.

3 – The 2019 budget has not (yet) removed all ecological aids

What she said :

" Bruno Le Maire has broken all the positive levers of positive ecology. (…) The energy transition tax credit, especially for double glazing, which has just been abolished, the 200 euros for electric bicycles, that has just been abolished, the 10,000 euros for the purchase of an electric car , it has just been removed, the other tax credits including the installation of electricity terminals, it has just been removed, subsidies for territories with positive energy … "

That's pretty true

After denouncing the increase in ecological taxation, Ségolène Royal has also ginted the measures planed by the government. This inventory is not totally wrong: the premium for the purchase of an electric bike disappeared at the beginning of the year, the territories with positive energy, victims of their success, had problems of financing, and the premium to electric cars has dropped from 10,000 euros to 6,000 euros.

However, the tax credit for the energy transition (CITE) has been extended by one year in the 2019 budget law, for an amount of more than 800 million euros, and should continue to finance the electric charging stations . If we add the increase of the energy check, which goes from 150 euros to 200 euros for the modest households (for a total cost of 710 million euros), the extension of the ecoprêt at zero rate (about 800 million euros) and the conversion premium (€ 760 million), the draft finance law 2019 provides for nearly € 3 billion of "positive" measures for the environment.

However, this remains below the 5 billion euros expected by the only increase in taxation on fuel. And it is rather in the following years that the "scissors effect" is likely to be felt, since taxes on gasoline and diesel will only increase, while several programs of environmental support (ISCED, EcoPTZ) may disappear or be reworked.

In this, we can say that Ségolène Royal is rather right when she says that "The government does not respect the obligation of the law [sur la transition écologique] which is to say: "when you make a penny more ecological tax you are obliged to lower a cent elsewhere tax so that there is a fiscal neutrality compared to the economy" ".

4 – Recover 55 billion euros of tax fraud? A very ambitious figure

What she said :

"The government would do better to fill the coffers by fighting against tax fraud banks, since the newspaper" Le Monde "has just revealed that there was 55 billion tax fraud banks, it would be smarter than to trap the car drivers. "

Why is it off topic?

The world is flattered that Ségolène Royal cites the investigation into the scandal "CumCum" and "CumEx", practices of tax evasion and optimization involving several banks. On the other hand, the figure that she advances, "55 billion euros of fraud", unfortunately does not correspond to a sum that the French taxman could recover. This is an estimate of the damage suffered by several European countries since 2001. For France, the sum would be rather estimated at 3 billion euros per year – which remains a very high amount.