PARIS (Reuters), – Bruno Le Maire, French Finance Minister, said Monday that he supports handing out petrol cheques to low-income families in order to cope with rising energy prices.

Le Maire said, “I prefer petrol check to a reduction of taxes”, adding that the former solution could also be interpreted as an endorsement fossil energy. The government would like to reduce its dependence on it.

France 2 TV’s Barbara Pompili, the French Environment Minister had told France 2 TV that Monday was also a day when she said that government officials were trying to establish these “petrol checks”, but that it was difficult.

Le Maire stated that the French could earn an additional 2.5 billion Euros ($2.9 billion) in VAT (value-added taxes) for 2021, assuming energy prices remain at their current high levels.

However, he stated that it wasn’t an increase in fiscal income as the government was already investing more than five million euros to help households pay their heating bills.

In September, the government stated that they were considering expanding the benefits of energy vouchers to additional households in order to reduce rising energy costs. Energy vouchers in France are available to almost 5.5 million households.

($1 = 0.8640 euros)