NEWS: France Threatens Oil Companies With "Special Taxes" If Prices Dont Fall

The French government has threatend oil companies with "special taxes" if they do not hand back some of their huge profits through lower prices. BP and Total have agreed to lower their prices in France. Total lowered its price per liter of petrol by 0.03 euros and said it will lower the price again today. BP said it will follow Total's lead.



0.03 euros/per litre? Is that meant as an insult? BP alone made £6 billion ($US10 billion)profit in the first 6 months of this year! In England their price of petrol has risen by almost 10p in the last week and they think a few pennies price falls makes a difference?

We should follow France's lead and shift most of our petrol tax duty onto the Oil companies themselves. ~£12 billion annual profit is obscene when our economy is on the brink of recession due to oil prices.

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[edit on 10/9/05 by subz]

I agree 110%. Maybe now that France has The USofA will follow. Too many US uppers have their fingers in the profit to allow such a thing I'm afraid.

Thats a d@mn good idea!

What a novel idea. too bad big oil is Bush and cheney the dick's real constituency and not the people of the United States. Oh well too bad.

We do the opposite...Instead of threatening them with taxes, we give them tax breaks.

Yes, what a novel idea, socialism. I am quite sure Hitler is smiling down on the Frenchies.

Originally posted by Frosty
Yes, what a novel idea, socialism. I am quite sure Hitler is smiling down on the Frenchies.

(1) that is not socialism by any stretch of the imagination...check your political dictionary

(2) Hitler was no socialist dispite the socialism in the accronym NAZI, they were anything but...again check your dictionary.

(3) What the French are doing are penalizing corporations, in this case big oil for price gouging.

Well it's quite obvious that democracy doesn't work for us either huh Frosty?

Originally posted by Frosty
Yes, what a novel idea, socialism. I am quite sure Hitler is smiling down on the Frenchies.

Hitler? Socialism? What? Talk about opposite ends of the political spectrum... wow...

Anyway. I think it's a great idea. The gas prices are getting way too high. $20 used to fill up my tank, now it bairly fills half

Maybe PM Martin can do something similar too. Canada's people are now being crushed with fuel prices lately. And the Canadian Gov is doing little about it thus far -- hey France !!

Dallas

Originally posted by Frosty
Yes, what a novel idea, socialism. I am quite sure Hitler is smiling down on the Frenchies.

Hitler wasn't a socialist. He was a fascist - he ran under the 'socialist' party banner, took over the party, and changed its direction. The same kind of switch has happened with party takeovers in the USofA where the Dems and Republicans have reversed roles.