Emmanuel Sire discusses the price increases announced by Bruno Le Maire on LCI - January 21, 2024

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It is not the price of electricity that is increasing but it is the taxes. This is what I recalled this morning on LCI in Jean Baptiste Boursier's morning show.

I confirm that the price signal encourages consumers to consume at the right time.

The price signal has always been a factor. There, we have just spent two weeks at great expense in France. We have just spent almost ten days in a row on what we call a red day for customers who are on time. And so, it encourages you to consume less.

The regulated rate is the only price that the government cannot change. And the regulated tariff is the CRE, the Commission de Régulation de l'Énergie, which makes a calculation, which is an average of the prices that have been made over the last few months. In recent years, we've averaged the last 24 months to give a price signal.

So, Emmanuelle Wargon should have given us the price of energy. And in fact, it gave the government the lead. And the government, in fact, if the CRE had given the price without increasing taxes, there would have been no increase in prices. It is really the increase in taxes that is causing the prices to increase.

The whole of France must be electrified tomorrow. So it's not a luxury item. It's becoming a commodity.

Taxes are being increased. Because in fact, the taxes at the origin are what we call the TICFE, the CSPE. It was to finance everything that was renewable, when the renewable was not in quotation marks, that's what we call in the currency. Except that the price of renewable solar and wind energy is falling. And in fact, there is no need for subsidies. But taxes, in fact, are made to finance, I wouldn't say maybe, the nuclear future. We are taking taxes that were supposed to finance renewable energy, which will finance the nuclear future.