After the failure of its plan to authorize the sale of fuel at a loss, the government wants to encourage, during a meeting planned in Matignon, Tuesday September 26, distributors to market at cost price to reduce the bill for the French. the pump.
The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, welcomes distributors, refiners, and professional federations at 5:30 p.m. to “ensure margins are moderate” And “ask to increase cost price operations, without excluding legislating where appropriate”. “Everyone must take their part”, she insisted. In front of the deputies of the presidential camp in the National embly, Tuesday morning, Mr.me Borne considered “legislate” on the matter, without giving further details.
The impact of selling at cost price, however, risks being “fairly marginal”because it is already practiced by brands and large retailers sell fuels with margins of “a few cents”far from canceling the increase in recent months, recalls Patrice Geoffron, professor at Paris-Dauphine University and director of the energy-climate team at Agence France-Presse.
E.Leclerc announces that it sells gasoline at “cost price”
“From September 29, the 750 service stations of E.Leclerc hypermarkets will sell gasoline daily at “cost price””, has, moreover, announced Michel-Edouard Leclerc on X (formerly Twitter). The president of the E.Leclerc group specified that gasoline would be sold every day “not just on weekends, as in our previous operations”. Evoking “low margins, 2 cents on average per liter”the boss of Système U, Dominique Schelcher, confirmed on BFM-TV-RMC that he would proceed by “operations” : “It can’t be permanent cost price. »
The meeting planned in Matignon, the day after an ecological planning council, once again illustrates the executive’s difficulty in reconciling the reduction of polluting emissions and the preservation of purchasing power weighed down by the surge in fossil fuel prices. On purchasing power, “ecology is the answer”, replied Emmanuel Macron on Sunday. While affirming: ” The car, (…) I love it. »
The idea of selling fuel at a loss will therefore only have existed for a week after its announcement by the Prime Minister, which was received with reluctance even among the majority. Anxious to forget this setback as quickly as possible, the government hopes for a quick result. Beyond the sale at cost price, Mr. Macron announced the renewal in 2024 of “worker fuel allowance”. The measure, with a budget of around 500 million euros, has not convinced the opposition, who denounce “check policy” and are demanding tax cuts in unison.
The World with AFP