On Saturday, the National Assembly narrowly rejected the idea of a tax on the „superprofits” or „windfall profits” of large multinationals, despite protests from the left and the far right.
Should superprofits be taxed, as Italy and Spain have done? The question is revived in view of the enormous profits reaped by TotalEnergies in the second quarter. The French group is taking full advantage of the rise in oil and gas prices that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It more than doubled its net profit in the second quarter, to 5.7 billion dollars, against 2.2 billion in the same quarter of 2021.
The National Assembly narrowly rejected on Saturday the idea of a tax on the “superprofits” or “exceptional profits” of large multinationals – in particular oil companies –, despite protests from the left and the far right.
Instead, TotalEnergies announced a discount of 20 euro cents per liter of fuel at the pump between September and November in all its service stations, then 10 cents per liter for the rest of the year. This rebate will be added to the 30 centimes rebate financed by the State budget.