Corona aid is important for the economy in the crisis.
But an institute has now made an explosive calculation.
The opposition is angry.
Berlin -
According to a calculation by the
Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft
(IW), the
federal government pays
ten billion euros more than actually necessary
for the
November and December
aid
.
According to the calculation, the affected businesses - especially from the catering and event industry - earned more money in many cases than if they had opened thanks to the compensation from the state, reported Die
Welt am Sonntag
.
With reference to figures from the
Bundesbank, the
institute assumes
that on average half of the costs in the sectors concerned are variable - that is, they do not even arise when the companies are closed.
Nevertheless, the federal government pays the companies
75 percent of the turnover
from the same month of 2019.
Although there are differences between the individual industries, the newspaper quoted from the
IW calculations
.
Across all those affected, however, around every third euro of the around 30 billion euros estimated by the federal government for November and December is paid too much.
Corona aid from Merkel's government: Opposition appalled by calculation - "as a permanent lockdown is emerging ..."
The opposition accused the federal government of making mistakes.
Left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch
asked her to reclaim too much Corona aid that had been paid.
“If there are overcompensations, they have to be adjusted, he told the Funke newspapers.
He warned of “extreme overcompensation in the billions at the expense of taxpayers and contributors”.
The money must be fetched back, "also to partially finance the current aid with it".
In response to the calculations, the
FDP called for
improvements.
"It takes revenge that the federal government has still not developed a compensation rule for corona-related state bans on activity," said
group
vice-president
Michael Theurer of
the
AFP
news
agency
.
"Since a permanent lockdown is now emerging, the federal government urgently needs to submit such a regulation."
FDP parliamentary group vice Christian Dürr
said: "The help of the 'GroKo' is not targeted: some companies are overcompensated, others go empty-handed or receive the compensation much too late." The companies must now be helped by a "significantly expanded loss offset".
Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht
(SPD) meanwhile took the view that state compensation payments for the economy were legally required until the end of the corona pandemic.
As long as there are “serious restrictions”, “from my point of view there must also be help,” Lambrecht told
Welt am Sonntag
.
(
AFP
)