The French Prime Minister, François Fillon, today announced a corrective measures worth 18,6 billion euro for 2012 and 2013, for a total of 100 billion between now and 2016, the year by which France intends to bring the budget back into balance.
"Before us are several years of penalty“, declared the premier who in the light of the financial crisis, considers that the word “bankruptcy” is “no longer so abstract”.
Amounts to 7 billion the figure for the 2012 budget: a new austherity cure after the already rigorous maneuver of last August 26th.
Here are the main points of the measure:
- the retirement age will be raised to 62 in 2017 and not in 2018 as originally planned;
- healthcare will suffer a cut of a further 700 million euros;
– the so-called tax "niches"., i.e. the tax-exempt categories within certain limits, will be reduced by another 2,6 billion;
- the subsidized rate of VAT (TVA in French), in force for sectors such as catering, will be increased to 7% from the current 5,5%;
- corporate tax will be increased by 5% for companies with a turnover of more than 250 million euros, while income tax and solidarity tax will remain frozen for the next two years;
- salaries of the President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, and of the government ministers will be frozen
