The statement by Prime Minister Manuel Valls regarding the government’s intention to assess the relationship between business subsidies and their impact on investment and employment—in other words, economic recovery—followed by Minister Emmanuel Macron’s announcement that only 16 out of the top 50 industry agreements had been negotiated and signed between social partners, ignited tension in business circles.
More accustomed to criticizing than being criticized, even if indirectly, business leaders frowned at the government’s statements, highlighting the psychological impact of the issue: “no criticism, otherwise morale hits rock bottom and then…” as proclaimed on their behalf by the media-savvy Geoffroy Roux de Bezieux.
However, the deal was quite clear: around forty billion in subsidies over three years in exchange for 1 million hires, as stated by the head of the employers’ union Medef, Pierre Gattaz, who for some time proudly wore a badge that expressed this goal.
However, businesses received their subsidies but forgot the rest…
There is still the memory of an anti-economic policy demonstration against the socialist government with business leaders marching in front of prefectures, brandishing a yellow card, in sporting inspiration.
Can one imagine a ministerial delegation marching in front of the Medef headquarters, displaying a red card?
According to an assessment by Bercy, in 2015 alone, just over a million businesses eligible for this tax relief were able to recover 17.5 billion euros. This is much more than the 9.9 billion euros of 2014.
“This year again, the CICE should represent an additional 18.5 billion for businesses,” announced Finance Minister Michel Sapin.
In total, between 2014 and 2015, businesses could lay claim to a cumulative sum of 27.4 billion euros. Of this amount, 85%, or 23.5 billion, were actually received by companies, including 18.6 billion in the form of tax credits and 4.9 billion pre-financed by the public bank Bpifrance.
This last figure, according to Bercy, shows that the pre-financing mechanism for the CICE was “well adopted by businesses.” The remaining 3.9 billion constitute the amounts still owed to businesses.
