A flat tax on fuel consumption is at the centre of France's first political debate after the government's return from summer recess. Prime Minister François Fillon is defending the fiscal measure, which promises to be a divisive issue. A tax on fuel consumption is at the centre of France's first political debate after the government's return from summer recess. Although all French parties say they support fiscal measures to curb carbon dioxide emissions and lower consumption of non-renewable energy sources, the issue is a divisive one, even within parties. Prime Minister François Fillon has defended the tax in an interview to the weekly Figaro Magazine, to be published on Saturday. Echoing President Nicolas Sarkozy's wish to implement an overarching levy to reduce France's total fuel consumption, Fillon hoped to defuse opposition to the tax among industrial groups and members of his own UMP centre-right party. "We have decided to apply this tax progressively, starting with the market price of carbon, or 14 euros" per tonne, Fillon told Le Figaro. He also reassured constituents that the tax would not go into effect until 2010.
A tax on fuel consumption is at the centre of France's first political debate after the government's return from summer recess. Although all French parties say they support fiscal measures to curb carbon dioxide emissions and lower consumption of non-renewable energy sources, the issue is a divisive one, even within parties. Prime Minister François Fillon has defended the tax in an interview to the weekly Figaro Magazine, to be published on Saturday. Echoing President Nicolas Sarkozy's wish to implement an overarching levy to reduce France's total fuel consumption, Fillon hoped to defuse opposition to the tax among industrial groups and members of his own UMP centre-right party. "We have decided to apply this tax progressively, starting with the market price of carbon, or 14 euros" per tonne, Fillon told Le Figaro. He also reassured constituents that the tax would not go into effect until 2010.
The left has been quite noisy on the fact that, as proposed, this is a highly regressive move, ie another unjust tax policy decision by Sarkozy. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
