Consumer demand will apparently not be taken into account. Bruno Le Maire suggested on Monday that there would be no freeze on the regulated electricity tariff (TRVE), while reaffirming that the price increase would not exceed 10%.
“We will discuss with the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic the final figure which will be retained, but I repeat what I have always said, which is that I keep my word there will be no increase in the price electricity by more than 10% in the coming days,” declared the Minister of the Economy during a trip to the Gravelines nuclear power plant (North).
The regulated electricity price, from which the majority of households benefit, is reviewed twice a year, on February 1st and August 1st. And on Friday, the consumer defense association UFC Que Choisir asked the government for a “freeze” of this regulated electricity tariff, while prices on the wholesale market have seen a clear relaxation in recent months after the surge history of 2022.
“Too costly for our public finances”
“I have always indicated that we must collectively come out of energy shields, we have all collectively spent more than 40 billion euros to pay the gas bill and the electricity bill of the French during the inflationary crisis, no other country “did that,” recalled Bruno Le Maire. “I have always indicated that this exceptional situation cannot last, it is too costly for our public finances, it costs too much,” he added, emphasizing that “money does not fall from the sky” .
For him, it is “too easy to suggest that we can spend billions and billions of euros” when there are “needs in hospitals, schools and public services”. The executive has already almost doubled since January 1 the gas excise – a tax paid by natural gas suppliers. A change which should increase the bill for fixed price gas subscribers, i.e. around half of subscribers.