After the time for reflection, here is the time for solutions. Traveling to a farm in Haute-Garonne, Gabriel Attal announced on Friday that he was going to remove the increase in the tax on non-road agricultural diesel, which was to increase gradually until 2030. “We are going to stop with this trajectory of increase in GNR,” announced the head of government, thus meeting one of the main demands of farmers. For a “simplification” of procedures, he also announced that tax rebates on this fuel would be deducted upon purchase, and no longer afterward on receipt, “by the summer”.
A response intended to calm the farmers mobilized across the four corners of France. Because since January 18, the change in taxation on non-road diesel (GNR) was one of the big cruxes of the problem. Behind this term hides a diesel fuel intended only for agricultural tractors, forestry tractors, bulldozers, excavators, snow plows, railway locomotives and inland navigation boats and for pleasure boats which do not sail at sea. Became compulsory in November 2011 for these industrial machines, it aimed to replace domestic fuel oil, which is more polluting. Although GNR is similar to diesel delivered to service stations, it nevertheless contains a lower sulfur content, a higher cetane index and a share of biofuels, notes the TotalEnergies website. To differentiate it from domestic diesel, a red dye was added to GNR, cheaper than for individuals.
LIVE – Farmers’ anger: Attal announces an end to the increase in GNR
Two taxes set the price of this GNR: VAT and the internal consumption tax on energy products (TICPE). On the latter, farmers are entitled to a partial reimbursement, which tends to reduce over the years. It is precisely this point that farmers are denouncing today. Since the beginning of the year, RNG has been taxed at 24.81 euro cents per liter, of which farmers actually pay 6.71 cents per liter. But this represents a surplus of 2.85 cents compared to last year, with a price which was set at 3.86 cents. Note that in 2023, support for agricultural GNR represented 1.7 billion euros for the State.
This price increase should have increased by three cents per year until 2030. To justify this decision, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, explained on France Info last September that the end of this tax loophole aimed to “ shift our taxation from brown taxation – which encourages the consumption of fossil fuels – to taxation which promotes green investments”. But faced with the discontent of farmers, the executive is now turning around. The president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, raised on Monday the possibility that instead of having to request reimbursement of the TICPE, farmers could benefit from a rebate “immediately”. “Nearly 35% of farmers do not request this reimbursement which is due to them,” he added. If the discount was applied to the invoice, there would be “no paperwork to do”. An administrative simplification that the government heard.
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