Les vrais états généraux de la restauration

How the cut in VAT put nothing better on your plate or back in your wallet

When the French government slashed VAT for eat-in (sur-place) meals from 19.5% to 5.5% in 2009 they did so with huge amounts of publicity and self-flattery. It was considered as quite a feat; approval had to be granted first from the European Parliament who set all the rates for member states and lobbyists had been campaigning for such a cut since 1992. One year after the implementation of the plan it is worth asking ourselves as customers; how much less are we really paying?

The intentions of the tax cut were to provide employers with a much needed financial windfall. In return for a small drop in prices employers in the sector were to provide a stimulus package to their employees, create more jobs and re-invest in their businesses so they could weather the economic downturn.

The most important of the effects of the tax break is naturally the drop in prices. To the everyday paying customer the tax break was supposed to deliver a higher quality of service in relation to what we paid. A survey by the INSEE, a non-governmental institute, reveals that prices actually only dropped 0.9% in cafés and restaurants in the one year period since the implementation of the tax-cut. When hotels were included, also in the same survey, overall prices showed an increase of 0.1%. Despite this evidence, alongside plenty of anecdotal evidence from the public, the French government continues to place the average price decrease at 2.5%.

In the capital many of the larger Parisian brasserie-style restaurants failed to put down prices at all. They’re easy enough to recognise; they’ll often have multilingual menus and immense dining halls and they’re also the ones more likely to be serving frozen ready-made meals from the equivalent of a catering mail-order catalogue. It is easy to dismiss them as ‘tourist-traps’ but it is with these restaurants in mind when we ask ourselves whether our ratio of quality service to price has materialised over the last 12 months.

There is a good deal of trouble to be had in untangling the murky beaurocratic waters at work here, and once you’ve done so the picture does not look at all promising. Restaurants were later given the option of opting out of the minimum wage-increase, the jobs increase failed to materialise yet the tax-cut measure enjoys continued support by a French government desperate to improve disastrously dwindling approval ratings.

The trouble is that the official statistics, proving the tactic to be more successful than initially planned, are openly misleading when compared to the figures issued by non-governmental counterparts. Considering the foundation of French cuisine is traditionally based around locally sourced business practices the tax cut does nothing to bring clear solutions to the difficulties faced by small restaurateurs who continue to provide a quality service. Ultimately it is up to us the customers to decide whether we feel we are getting better value for money in the restaurants we frequent and whether we can provide practical assistance in assuring the longevity of real French cuisine.

A.H