France’s National Assembly rejected a tax on windfall profits on Saturday in a close vote, as pressure mounts to tax energy and transport companies that have benefited from rising prices.
As they were discussing an update of the finance bill for this year, 114 members of the lower house rejected amendments that would have set up an exceptional tax on so-called “superprofits” from companies such as TotalEnergies SE, Engie SA and shipper CMA CGM SA. The tax was proposed by the left, and backed by 96 members of parliament, including one who belongs to French President Emmanuel Macron’s coalition. Some deputies from Macron’s party have advocated for such a tax, but abstained during the vote.
On Friday, Total and CMA CGM said they would grant fuel and freight-rate rebates in France, bowing to political pressure for measures to soften the impact of inflation and counter the call for a windfall tax.
While the government did not back the tax, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire had asked both firms to make a bigger effort to help consumers and welcomed the firms’ announcements, saying pressure on the companies has been “efficient.”
Since he lost his outright majority in the lower house of parliament last month, Macron has been forced to seek ad hoc coalitions to pass legislation. He passed his first test earlier last week, with the adoption of measures aimed at sheltering households from surging inflation, passed thanks to the support of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party and the conservative Les Republicains.
On Saturday, lawmakers also agreed to scrap the TV license fee and to fund media such as France 24 TV channel or France Inter via the value-added tax. Other measures on the agenda of the National Assembly include the funding of the full nationalization of energy company Electricite de France SA as well as cuts on fuel prices and subsidies for energy.
Debates were to continue over the weekend, and legislation still needs to be approved by the Senate.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained