Heating oil bonus axed
Consumer groups are angry that the prime à la cuve winter bonus for low-income households has been dropped
HEATING oil bonus the prime à la cuve has been axed – to the anger of consumer groups.
Last year the least well-off households, which do not pay any income tax, were eligible for a €200 payout if they had bought heating oil. However the measure, first launched for the winter of 2005/06, has been dropped from the 2010 budget.
Consumer group UFC-Que Choisir said in a statement: “By axing this bonus about 700,000 low-income households, often in rural areas, will be the big losers in the 2010 Finance Law.”
However a spokesman for the Economy Ministry said: “The prime à la cuve, is not necessarily paid every year and has to be justified by an exceptional situation with regard to the oil market.”
Budget Minister Eric Woerth told radio station France Info that oil prices were now “perfectly reasonable.”
UFC-Que Choisir said the prices were now comparable to 2005, when the prime was created, at €75. They said a decrease compared to last year’s €200 would have been acceptable, but not removing it.
This year the prime concerned deliveries of fuel between July 2008 and March 2009, and applications had to be made to the local trésorerie at the latest by the end of April. The money was payable from January 1.
Households which do not use electricity to heat their homes are also expected to see further rises in costs from 2010 with the introduction of the taxe carbone – a tax on CO2 emissions that will raise the price of gas and oil.
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