2023-04-21 09:32:00
Bruno Le Maire makes this announcement while energy prices are still high. The bill climbs to tens of billions of euros for the state.
By BL with aFP
Published on
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Le extended tariff shield. While it has been in force since the fall of 2021, the electricity tariff shield will be in force in France until the beginning of 2025, announced the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire. At the same time, the similar device concerning gas will be ended, without Bruno Le Maire.
“I give us two years, by the start of 2025, to get out of the electricity shield”, because of the tariffs which remain “very high” compared to the pre-crisis situation, he said. . The production of electricity by EDF remains “a little below what we could expect, so that makes prices which are even higher”, specified Bruno Le Maire. The release of this shield will therefore be gradual “so as not to worry” the French. The increase in the regulated electricity tariff, capped by the State through subsidies, was 4% in 2022 and 15% in 2023.
This tariff shield, announced in the fall of 2021 by the then Prime Minister, Jean Castex, at a time when energy prices were starting to rise sharply, should cost 45 billion euros this year in public finances. To which are added other energy aids for households (fuel, heating oil, wood, etc.) and for small and medium-sized businesses. Despite these expenses, the government continues to proclaim the end of “whatever the cost”, preferring to speak of targeted aid that is not intended to be permanent.
“It is in itself a good thing for consumers, it is a positive measure, since it will avoid an explosion in electricity prices”, reacted to Agence France-Presse François Carlier, from the consumer association CLCV.
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Final whistle for gas
On the other hand, the Minister considers that the extension of the tariff shield on gas is no longer justified because natural gas prices have fallen significantly since the unprecedented peaks of 2022, caused by the war in Ukraine and the end of Russian gas exports. to Western Europe. For gas, “there is no reason to maintain the shield”, said Bruno Le Maire, because of prices which “have returned to the pre-crisis situation, at 50 euros per megawatt hour”. The shield will stop “as of this year”, announced Bruno Le Maire.
On Friday, the reference price for natural gas in Europe was around 40 euros per MWh, i.e. the level for the summer of 2021, which was, admittedly, already around twice the average prices of previous years.
The government had so far said that the tariff shield would be applied until the end of 2023.
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A method of calculation that poses a problem
With regard to electricity, François Carlier indicates that, if the shield had been lifted as planned at the end of 2023, the regulated sales tariff, which concerns a majority of customers, would have exploded regardless of market developments, due to how it is calculated by the Energy Regulatory Commission. While it depends in part on stable elements such as the price of nuclear power produced by EDF and the cost of the network, which is increasing little, a fraction depends on the average price of electricity on the wholesale markets over the last two years, explains Mr. Carlier.
Do not penalize consumers and with them growth while preserving the public accounts, the equation is delicate for the government, as summed up by Mr. Le Maire in an interview granted to the Picard mail “It is imperative to accelerate France’s debt reduction with a target of reducing the public debt in 2027 by 4 points higher than what was forecast last year,” he explains. Among the levers mentioned, the exit from the tariff shield and the end of exceptional checks for energy.
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