The planned state gas levy to support large energy importers is also causing growing tension in the governing coalition. SPD leader Lars Klingbeil accused Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck of technical errors and called for corrections and a policy with substance instead of “nice words”. The federal government had announced changes to the gas levy.
However, the opposition as well as economists and business associations continue to call for a reform or for a waiver of the levy that private households and industry are supposed to pay from October. The surcharge is intended to compensate for the sharp rise in costs for large importers due to the shortage of Russian gas supplies in order to protect them from bankruptcy and the energy system from collapsing. All gas customers should pay an additional 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour.
The main criticism is that companies that are doing well economically could also benefit. That is why the federal government is now examining corrections. However, this is considered to be legally complicated. Habeck had announced that it would explore legally secure ways of sorting out “free riders” in the levy. Klingbeil said there is no doubt that Economics Minister Habeck (Greens) had an interesting style of communication. “And of course we notice that this is well received by the public,” said the SPD leader time online. In the end, it wasn’t just nice words that counted in politics: “Above all, the substance has to be right. That’s what we’re measured by.” That’s why it’s important to eliminate the technical errors together: “It can’t be that companies that made billions in the crisis still collect billions in tax money.”
Companies that are doing well economically could also benefit
FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr also emphasized: “The gas levy must under no circumstances lead to extra returns for companies. We have to be careful that well-intentioned regulations do not turn into the opposite,” said Dürr on Saturday. It is now a matter of saving as much gas as possible in an acute emergency. “An extension of the lifespan of the remaining nuclear power plants would help to a large extent to reduce gas consumption in electricity production and bring prices on the electricity market down again.”
From the point of view of CDU leader Friedrich Merz, Habeck will “have to correct the first really big mistake”. He criticized the fact that companies that are doing well economically could also benefit from the gas levy: “If the state puts up a honeypot on the market square, then you shouldn’t be surprised if the doors around it open and everyone up to their upper arms in stuck in this pot,” said Merz, who is also the head of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag, on Saturday at a party conference of the CDU state association in Oldenburg.
FDP energy expert Michael Kruse proposed in the Rheinische Post proposed to limit the group of recipients of the contribution in such a way that only companies that have gotten into difficulties and where this has also been determined can claim payments. The employer-oriented Institute of the German Economy (IW) also calls for greater consideration of the financial situation of companies and their systemic relevance. in the Editorial Network Germany (RND) the IW economists called the idea of dividing the additional costs of gas procurement through a surcharge in principle correct. The President of the RWI Leibniz Institute, Christoph Schmidt, pleaded in the Rheinische Post for providing targeted support to companies that are experiencing extreme difficulties.
Hofreiter wants to drop the gas levy completely
The Green politician Anton Hofreiter spoke in the RND out for dropping the gas surcharge. To relieve the citizens, the money from a newly introduced “excess profit tax” should be distributed. The President of the Tenants’ Association, Lukas Siebenkotten, is also in favor of waiving the levy. “They should be mashed up, what’s all this nonsense about?” he told the newspapers Media Group Bavaria. It can be assumed that the reduction in VAT will not fully offset the burden of the levy.
The President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, warned of a further throttling of Russian gas supplies. With his announcement of “technical maintenance” for Nord Stream 1 on August 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin was “the number one price driver,” said Müller New Osnabrück newspaper. If Putin continues to turn off the gas tap after the maintenance, either more than 20 percent would have to be saved or more gas would have to be found from other countries. The situation is also difficult because a “quarter of our storage facilities, and this includes the largest ones, such as Rehden in Lower Saxony, are still far from the prescribed fill levels, despite good progress,” said Müller.