The measure had been on the table for several weeks. This time, it’s official. The government plans to introduce a new tax on motorway concessions and large airports in 2024 which should bring in 600 million euros annually, he announced on Wednesday while presenting his draft budget. Enough to make the actors concerned react.
“The tax on long-distance transport infrastructure will actually be put in place,” declared the Minister of the Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, to the press before the presentation of the next budget to the Council of Ministers. “These are polluting transport infrastructures, whether road or air,” he added. However, “the best funding” for the “extremely high” and “imperative” investments necessary for ecological transition “is to ensure that those who pollute more contribute more,” he insisted.
Bruno Le Maire assured that this increase in taxation would “not be passed on to the user” thanks to maintaining “the definition of toll rates”. “Motorway companies are not allowed to pass on the increase in tolls,” he added. The companies targeted by this new tax will have to meet a turnover and profitability threshold, the Ministry of the Economy and Finance was told. The executive had already announced its desire to tax motorway concessionaires such as Vinci, Sanef or Eiffage because of their profitability considered excessive, but the Council of State had warned against the “high” legal risk of only targeting companies in this sector.
“An increase in taxes is inevitably an increase in toll rates,” replied the president of Vinci Autoroutes, Pierre Coppey, on Wednesday, after the government’s announcement of a new tax on motorways and large airports. Increasing taxation “would not only be a violation of the State’s word” but also “a contradiction at a time when it is urgent to invest in decarbonizing the road,” Vinci argued in a message sent to the AFP.
For its part, the ADP group – which notably manages the Ile-de-France platforms of Roissy, Orly and Le Bourget – specified in a press release that the government plans “a tax of 4.6% applicable to the turnover” of the group. In 2022, this would have been applied to a base of 2.175 billion euros, generating an impact of approximately “100 million euros” for ADP. In 2024, the tax would represent a cost of 90 million euros, calculates the company, which expects to be able to pass on 75% of the cost to the airlines, “in the royalty rates”.
To mitigate this effect, ADP plans that “the increase in prices would be spread over two to three years, in order to contain its effect for airlines and respect the principle, provided for by law, of a “moderate” evolution of airfares. ‘one year after the next. A first increase, covering almost half of the impact of the tax, would take place from the 2024 tariff period,” specifies the organization.