Government faces €800m ecotaxe bill
Government and company set up to collect controversial road tax agree compensation after contract was cancelled
THE Government has agreed to pay Ecomouv’, the Franco-Italian consortium set up to collect the controversial ecotaxe, more than €800m in compensation after cancelling its contract.
Negotiations between the company and the State had been ongoing after the decision was made to finally abandon the tax in October. The deadline was New Year’s Eve.
An official told AFP that the government will pay €403million by the end of February, plus €40million annually for the next 10 years to cover the bank debt which has been taken over by the State.
On October 30, the government decided to terminate the partnership agreement with Ecomouv that had been made three years earlier during the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy. Speaking at the time, transport secretary Alain Vidal admitted: "It's a big mess."
Ecomouv’ announced on December 9 that it would cease its activities, and lay-off more than 200 staff - most of whom were based at the company’s operations centre in Metz - as a result of the government’s decision.
An initial version of the tax had been scrapped in June 2014 after a series of protests across France prompted former Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to suspend the scheme at the start of the year.
But its replacement, a system of road tolls on trucks using roads with particularly heavy freight traffic, proposed by environment minister Ségolène Royal proved equally unpopular.
The charge would have been imposed on vehicles weighing more than 3.5 tonnes using 4,000km of roads that carry more than 2,500 heavy goods vehicles a day.
As a result of the negotiations, boxes installed on lorries will become the property of the company, while the government will own the gantries that have been installed on roads across France. It is reportedly considering alternative uses for the structures.
Photo: murielle29
