Rising energy costs are a particular burden for people on low incomes. For those who are already tight on cash, it is a catastrophe when at the end of the year an ancillary cost statement with an additional claim of several hundred euros is in the mailbox. Higher petrol prices can also pose a real problem for commuters who are dependent on cars, and one that should not be dismissed as a reference to climate protection. The SPD in the district of Munich correctly recognized all of this – and then drew the completely wrong conclusion from it.
When district chairman Florian Schardt now proposes a reduction in VAT on heating oil, gas and petrol as compensation for the rising costs worldwide and the politically desired higher CO₂ tax, he is not only reducing the efforts to protect the climate ad absurdum. Nor is he the advocate of those “who can’t just shake off higher costs” that he claims to be. Because it is always the rich who benefit most from a reduction in VAT, who have more money and spend it – in this case for heating large houses and refueling thick SUVs.
The proposal is therefore either not well thought out – or sheer populism. Luckily he is not heard. On the other hand, the one-off heating subsidy for recipients of housing benefit and student loans, which was initiated by the Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz, who also belongs to the SPD, is a step in the right direction because it specifically benefits people with low incomes. Whether it is sufficient is another question – which the SPD Munich-Land could definitely discuss.