The Mouvement Réformateur (MR), Belgium's french-speaking liberal party is again calling for the application of the reverse ratchet system to bring down rising gas prices, Belga News Agency reports.
MR says it will ask for the issue to be included on the agenda in the next ministerial committee, according to Belga, which quotes MR President Georges-Louis Bouchez as saying that the system needs to be introduced from next week.
"We’ve been calling for this mechanism to be implemented for weeks now,” Mr. Bouchez said in an interview with SudInfo. “We are making it a priority now so that it can take effect this week.”
The aim is to lower the prices to between 1.60 euro and 1.70 euro per litre, he said, noting that while this was still high, it was a price that could be absorbed. “It’s all about the buying power of the middle class,” he said.
“More generally, at the various levels of power, we will broach the issue of automobile taxes: they are becoming unbearable. You need to offer people alternatives and stop permanently strangling them,” the MR leader added.
Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem has submitted a proposal on this issue to his partners in government. He said about two weeks ago that discussions on the proposal were in progress.
