Faced with rising prices at gas stations, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne announced that distributors will be able to sell gasoline “at a loss” for a few months in order to allow them to “lower prices further”, in an interview posted online on Saturday on the website of Parisian.
“With this unprecedented measure, we will have tangible results for the French, without subsidizing fuel,” she assured, after recalling that selling at a loss has been prohibited by law since 1963. The head of government does not did not accept the opposition’s proposals which called for either a rebate like a year ago, or a reduction in gasoline taxation to deal with the surge in fuel prices which reached the two euro mark on liter.
“Everyone takes their part,” she affirmed, assuring that “it is normal to involve large industrialists”, while recalling that “the responsibility of the State is also to lower its deficit and debt.
Anger of the gas station attendants
“For us gas station operators, it is out of the question that we sell at a loss,” Francis Pousse, president of the professional union Mobilians, which represents 5,800 traditional service stations, told AFP. Before adding: “My members live on 40, 50% or even more from the sale of fuel, so if they sell at a loss, I give them three months.” In an already very tight market, he points out that the net margin of traditional stations is “1 to 2 cents” (per liter) in normal times.
Francis Pousse also says he is “skeptical” about the effect of this measure on purchasing power, because if the prices of supermarket suppliers continue to increase, they will “not be able to afford to lose 15 cents on each liter of gasoline”. He said he expected “rapid and firm commitments” from the government to protect its members from this “market deregulation”.
Fuel prices in France have increased this summer: last week, on average, SP95-E10 sold at 1.9359 euros per liter (+0.9 cents compared to the previous week), diesel at 1. 88 euros (+2.3 cents) and the SP-98 at 2 euros (stable). Prices which had not been so high since April for gasoline and February for diesel, according to statistics from the Ministry of Ecological Transition.