2023-10-09 19:14:30
Published on Oct 9, 2023 at 7:14 p.m.
Do better! Bruno Le Maire would almost take on Mélenchonian accents for the examination in Parliament of the 2024 budget. While the government has been severely criticized for the very poor harvest of savings in its finance bill (PLF) for next year, the Minister of Finance is pushing MPs to correct these shortcomings.
“I propose that we set ourselves with the general budget rapporteur, with the majority deputies, a target of 1 billion euros in additional savings at the end of the parliamentary debate,” he declared on Sud Radio. “All parliamentarians from the majority who wish to make new savings, I will support them,” he added.
Deficit at 4.3%
The start this Tuesday of the examination in the Finance Committee of the National Assembly should make it possible to see whether this call from the tenant of Bercy finds a real echo in its own majority. Jean-René Cazeneuve, the Renaissance deputy general rapporteur of the budget, had already indicated, in an interview with “Echos” this Monday, his desire to “emerge from the parliamentary examination with a reduced deficit compared to the government’s objective, even if the gain is only limited.
“If we can post a deficit of 4.3% of GDP next year compared to the initial objective of 4.4%, it is important, both politically and with regard to the financial markets », Estimates a ministerial advisor. And all the more so since France’s borrowing rates have risen again in recent days.
The work requested of the deputies, however, seems tricky. The 2024 budget displays 16 billion savings. But of this total, more than 14 billion result from the automatic end of temporary aid granted during the energy crisis, and 700 million from last year’s unemployment insurance reform. So much so that the real amount of “new” savings released for this budget is only… 1 billion. The deputies will therefore have to do as well as Bercy.
Friction with Total
How to achieve this? Even if these are not savings, at least the deficit can be reduced by the extension of the contribution requested from energy companies and the tax on refineries carried by Jean-René Cazeneuve and several elected representatives of the majority.
Nobody knows how to quantify the real amount that the first measure would generate, while the second could bring in 200 million. If, however, it sees the light of day, given the displayed hostility of Total which threatens to put an end to the cap at 1.99 euros per liter of fuel. Questioned on the subject, Bruno Le Maire explained that he “does not really like taxes in general”, but “also respects what parliamentarians tell us”.
Beyond that, several Renaissance elected officials want to tackle the cost of apprenticeship, by cutting back aid for the largest companies or for bac+5 training. Pressure will also be put on to bring about the establishment of a remainder to be paid on the personal training account, already voted for last year in the budget but without an implementing decree since.
The personal service tax credit in the viewfinder
The idea of reducing the cost of burden reduction measures – by revisiting the calculation formula or by targeting reductions above 2.5 SMIC – is also among the avenues put forward by some in the majority. But there is no consensus on it and the government is opposed to it. “This would amount to an increase in labor costs,” warns Mathieu Lefèvre, coordinator of Renaissance deputies in the Finance Committee.
Finally, the Renaissance deputy for Indre et Loire Daniel Labaronne – who last year was part of a working group responsible for identifying savings avenues – insists on the need “to cap certain tax loopholes” .
“If we take the tax credit for personal services, we see that the cost is now 5 billion compared to 4 billion in 2022,” he notes. “A solution could be to reduce the ceiling of this tax credit from 12,000 euros currently to 10,000 euros for example. There are also 26 activities giving entitlement to this tax credit, the number could be reduced. Is it normal for the community to finance a taxpayer so that he can pay a gardener to come and water his lawn,” he asks.
The MP also wants to establish tighter control over the expenditure of state operators.
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