“You’re trapping me, I’m going to say something stupid”: the vice-president of the National Rally, Sébastien Chenu, was unable to cite on Monday the reduced VAT rate on basic necessities, which his party is proposing to eliminate.

Stuck in the rates: guest of Sud Radio, Mr. Chenu was launched on the price of gasoline and the “reduction of State taxes”, when he shifted to “0% VAT on products of first necessity”.

But what is the current rate? “VAT today, it is at…, it is at… listen, you are tricking me, because I am going to say something stupid,” he first stammered, before offering a figure: “It’s at 8.5%, I think.”

Error, the rate is 5.5%. “Not on all” products, however, insisted the number two of the RN, then affirming that between 5.5% and 8.5%, “we are in the same margin, in the same range”.

Verification made on the tax website, the rate of 8.5% corresponds to the normal VAT in the overseas departments.

But it doesn’t matter, since in the RN “we propose that it be at 0%” because “it is an unfair tax” which “impacts households in difficulty much more strongly”, recalled Mr. Chenu.

11/09/2023 11:41:24 –         Paris (AFP) –         © 2023 AFP