The state is stepping up its support for traders affected by the violence last week. Traveling to Essonne, the Minister of Economy and Finance opened the door to cancellations of charges for the professionals concerned. “We are going, on all traders, to look at how we can spread the payment of social security charges, or even postpone the payment of tax and social security charges,” said Bruno Le Maire.
“For the traders most affected, we could consider cancellations of social and tax charges”, then added the boss of Bercy, citing the case of professionals who saw their premises “completely burned”. “The state must be on your side and there can be cancellations […] on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “Advisors on emerging from the crisis” are also offered, in each department, via the website impots.gouv.fr, to support the traders concerned.
At the beginning of July, the boss of Bercy had already announced “the postponement of payment of social and tax charges” for traders whose premises had been targeted by the rioters. Some actors, such as Medef, however, requested additional support for the most affected professionals. Invited to France Inter, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux thus demanded, this Tuesday morning, “very targeted aid”, such as “partial unemployment when the store burned down, the moratorium on the charges which existed at the time of the Covid”. A way to help small bosses in shock.
After visiting several ransacked shops in the small town of Arpajon, Bruno Le Maire insisted that the government would do “everything necessary” to help traders. Earlier in the day, France insurers called on its members to accept several gestures for their customers hit by the riots, such as an increase in the time limit for declaring the claim, which goes from 5 to 30 days. The Minister of the Economy also recalled that insurers had promised reductions in the amount of deductibles as well as faster compensation.
Bruno Le Maire, however, did not comment on the financial results of the events, believing that it was too early. He thus did not confirm the figure of one billion euros advanced Monday evening by the president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux. “The top priority at the moment is to restore order. Traders must be able to carry out their activity in peace and not suffer gratuitous and unacceptable violence, ”repeated the minister during his trip.
