© Unsplash / Glenn Carstens-Peters
After lively debates, the deputies of the National Assembly ended up adopting the abolition of the audiovisual license fee. However, the taxpayer could still participate in its financing via another tax.
On the morning of July 23, 2022, MEPs voted at first reading to abolish the audiovisual license fee (TV and radio). A financial loss for public broadcasting, which will be replaced by a fraction of VAT.
End of the audiovisual license fee for 23 million French households
170 votes for and 57 votes against, this is the result of the vote which took place in the Hemicycle this weekend and which allowed the adoption of the amending finance bill for 2022.
Announced by the President of the Republic during his second presidential campaign, the abolition of the audiovisual license fee should return 128 euros of purchasing power per year to approximately 23 million households which until then had paid this tax. Overseas, where this amount is lower, households will save 88 euros per year.
For his part, the Minister of Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, assured that this would not call into question the independence of public broadcasting:
“We assume that we want to remove taxes that weigh on the French. […] We are very attached to our public broadcasting. »
As a reminder, this contribution to the public audiovisual sector made it possible to finance several national television and radio channels: France Télévisions (France 2, France 3, Arte, etc.), Radio France (France Inter, Franceinfo, etc.) and TV5 World (France 24 and RFI).
VAT, “a very unfair tax”
Public broadcasting will not find itself without funding insofar as the deputies have provided for a levy of a “fraction” of VAT, which all French citizens pay through their purchases. A levy which should make it possible to collect approximately 3.7 billion euros to finance public broadcasting.
Within the opposition, voices are raised to denounce an unfair tax and the risks that this could pose to the independence of the public service. The Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, specifies that “it is not the royalty which guarantees independence”, but Arcom (former CSA) which is in charge of appointing the directors of public audiovisual companies.
For LFI MP Clémentine Autain, “democracy needs a strong, reformed public audiovisual service, with fairer funding and guaranteeing independence. The deputies of Nupes also denounce “a demagogic and dangerous measure”.
For the spokesman of the Socialist Party, Arthur Delaporte, we are abolishing “a tax from which some are already exempt” to replace it with “a very unfair tax, VAT, which everyone pays, even those who do not have the TV […] when you are a pensioner at least old age, you benefit from the Disabled Adult Allowance or when you simply do not have a television at home, you do not pay the license fee”.
However, the law will have to go through the Senate before being ratified.
The echoes