TV license fee, RTT … What the amending budget contains definitively adopted this Thursday

After several dozen hours of exchanges, multiple invectives, important and lively debates, fights over amendments and sleepless nights, Parliament finally completed, on Thursday, the examination of two major texts of this beginning of the five-year term. After the bill on measures “emergency», definitively adopted on Wednesdaythe National Assembly followed by the Senate voted one last time on the 2022 amending budget, which also includes several provisions to provide oxygen to precarious households.

The deputies voted for the text by 292 votes against 120 and 98 abstentions: the right supported the bill, the Nupes opposed it and the RN abstained. In the Senate, support was more outspoken, with 233 votes to 97.

Read alsoItaly and France, the most generous countries in Europe to support purchasing power

Continuation of the tariff shield on energy and the fuel discount at 30 cents per liter in September-October then 10 in November-December, abolition of the fee, revaluation of the index point for civil servants… amending finances for 2022 (PLFR) opens 44 billion euros in credits, including 9.7 to finance the 100% renationalization of EDF. In substance, the text supplements the measures already voted on under the purchasing power bill . The executive also suffered several major setbacks. Le Figaro highlights the main elements of the text.

Abolition of the audiovisual license fee

Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promise, the historic fee, which makes it possible to finance public broadcasting, is abolished. Worth 138 euros in mainland France and 88 euros overseas this year, it brought in 3.2 billion euros out of the 3.8 billion paid to public broadcasting. The text plans to allocate until 2025 “a fractionof VAT, for an amount of approximately 3.7 billion euros, to respond to concerns about its financing. This subject has sparked intense debate between political groups, with the left accusing the executive of undermining the independence and survival of the companies concerned.

Read alsoWill the abolition of the audiovisual license fee lead to an increase in VAT?

Redemption of RTT, overtime: measures to reward those who work more

To encourage the French toWork more to earn more“, according to the adage dear to Nicolas Sarkozy and Emmanuel Macron, deputies and senators have agreed to raise the tax exemption ceiling for overtime to 7,500 euros and to make it permanent.

In addition, it will now be possible for each employee to “give up all or part of the days or half-days of rest» acquired under RTT by having them paid by his employer. An approach which must be strictly voluntary and which will still require the agreement of the employer. If the right hoped for a continuation of this measure, it will only be effective until the end of 2025.

Read alsoConverting RTT for cash: everything you need to know

Again, the debates in Parliament were tough between the executive and the right, on the one hand, and the left, on the other hand, against these provisions. “We are in the process, in the middle of the night, in August, of burying the 35 hours“, was offended, in the Senate, the ecologist Thomas Dossus, his socialist colleague David Assouline speaking”of force“. Faced with the deputies, Bruno Le Maire defended himself, assuring that the measure on the RTT only brought a “freedomto employees and in no way called into question the working week.

“Exceptional help» back to school: 100 euros for beneficiaries of social minima and the activity bonus

After several round trips over the past few days, parliamentarians have finally found common ground on the issue of the exceptional back-to-school bonus. This aid, which will reach 100 euros, will be paid to the beneficiaries of the minima and also to those receiving the activity bonus, the total envelope allocated to this measure is thus around 1.1 billion euros.

During the review, LR senators made major changes to the Assembly copy, proposing to reserve aid for precarious workers. A change that made the left roar, then which was removed in a joint joint committee to draw up this final compromise.

Read alsoExceptional back-to-school aid deeply revised by Parliament

Fuels: towards a reinforced rebate

The compromise found by the right on fuel prices finally held. While the executive wanted to replace the rebate of 18 cents currently applied to each liter of fuel with an allowance targeted at workers, this will increase to 30 cents per liter in September-October and then to 10 cents in November-December. The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, considers it possible to have, with the discounts from distributors and oil companies, “a price per liter of petrol or diesel at the start of the school year around 1.50 euros“.

Read alsoFuels: prices at the pump fell sharply in July

Encourage employers to pay for the transport subscriptions of their employees

The final text aims to encourage employers, for 2022 and 2023, to participate more, on a voluntary basis, in the payment of transport subscriptions for their employees beyond 50% of their cost, by exempting the fraction up to 75%.

Energy: help for homes heating with oil

Proposed by the deputies of the oppositions and then carried by the government, the envelope of 230 million euros for the hearths heating with the fuel appears indeed in the text adopted Thursday afternoon. This envelope is intended tofinance targeted support measures for low-income households in a context of rising energy prices“. A necessity in the eyes of the executive because three million people are still heated with fuel oil in France. However, these measures will be specified by regulation and limited in time.

In the National Assembly, the amendment of LR Jérôme Nury had been voted with the alliance of the oppositions Nupes, LR and RN, while the government defended a more limited measure of 50 million euros. The Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, has proposed involving parliamentarians in defining the targeting of households that will be able to benefit from this additional aid. According to Senate rapporteur Jean-François Husson (LR), “a form of targeting seems necessary, firstly to exclude households heating their second homes with oil“.

20 million euros released for a biometric Vitale card

20 million credits were voted by the Senate to launch the implementation of a biometric Vitale card. The elect wanted to unblock “the first credits to launch the implementation of a biometric Vitale card from autumn 2022“. The objective, according to Philippe Mouiller, is to fight against fraud, which would reach “6 billion euros, according to the lowest estimate“. This amendmentwill speed things up“Said the Minister Delegate for Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, who lifted the pledge.

600 million euros for local authorities

Affected in particular by the increase in energy prices which have soared due to the conflict in Ukraine, and the 3.5% revaluation of the index point for civil servants, local authorities will be supported by the text, with a total amount of 600 million euros.

The deputies had planned 180 million euros for the benefit of municipalities and intermunicipalities in difficulty, in a “compromise” fiercely negotiated. The senators wanted to go further, in a “common desire to support communities”. “It’s a huge effort” which is done “fairly”said the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, welcoming “the remarkable work of compromise made by the general rapporteur” on this file.

9.7 billion euros released for the renationalization of EDF

The rectified budget puts 9.7 billion euros on the table to finance the 100% renationalisation of EDF. Here again, the subject led to long debates: in the Assembly, ecologists had denounced the “going all nuclear“While LR conversely deplored the closure of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant. Ultimately, the executive has the means to carry out its project, with these funds.

Read alsoHow EDF became a nightmare for small shareholders

Covid-19: partial activity maintained for fragile employees

The Covid is not forgotten. An employer may place his employees in a situation of partial activity.recognized as vulnerable who present a proven risk of developing a serious form of Covid-19 infection, and who are unable to work, including remotely“. This measure was to end on July 31, 2022, the end date of the state of health emergency: it will finally resume at the beginning of September, “until a date set by decree and no later than January 31, 2023“.

Food aid: 40 million euros for associations

Faced with the difficulties encountered by many French people on a daily basis to feed themselves, parliamentarians agreed to allocate 40 million euros for food aid associations. A way of “meet the immediate needs of the most disadvantaged“, according to the Senate.

No taxation of superprofits

This is one of the many debates that made the walls of the Assembly vibrate: despite the appeals of many parliamentarians from the left or from the center, there will be no tax on “superprofits” made by some companies thanks to the rise in prices, in particular of energy. The idea of ​​a supertax, already applied in Great Britain or Italy, had been revived by the significant profits made this year by certain large groups. The Senate had evacuated this lead from the outset, Bruno Le Maire repeating his opposition to “Pavlovian tax reflex“.

---

SEE ALSO – Law on purchasing power: the National Assembly votes the text in first reading