French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Friday called a fresh vote on a palm oil tax break for energy giant Total, after lawmakers and environment activists cried foul when the benefit was rushed through parliament without debate.
The second vote, which could come as soon as Friday afternoon, "will allow MPs to have a debate worthy of what's at stake," an official in Philippe's office said. Several lawmakers were up in arms after learning the amendment for the 2020 budget had been approved late Thursday, saying they had not been sufficiently informed about the tax break.
Parliament had excluded palm oil from tax breaks for biofuel sources last year, a huge blow for a new Total refinery which began operating in July.
The new amendment, sponsored by lawmakers from the region where the refinery is located, passed despite an unfavourable opinion from the budget legislation's rapporteur, a member of President Emmanuel Macron's centrist LREM party.
It would allow tax breaks for using palm oil as a source of biofuels until 2026 - a huge boost for Total's refinery at La Mede on the Mediterranean coast near Marseille.
Environmentalists say palm oil drives deforestation, with vast areas of Southeast Asian rainforest having been logged or set ablaze in recent decades to make way for plantations.
"MPs in the majority, in collaboration with the government, have given in to Total's shameful lobbying," the Amis de la Terre (Friends of the Earth) advocacy group said after the vote.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019