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Minister colleagues Habeck (right), Lindner: Not like 2021
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
According to Economics Minister Robert Habeck, the planned gas price brake will only apply to 80 percent of consumption.
The upper peaks would certainly not be capped, said the Green politician on Friday on Deutschlandfunk.
"You will certainly have to pay the full bill for the top 20 percent of normal consumption." It is also clear that the remaining amount will not be reduced to the tariffs from before the Ukraine war.
"Of course we won't be able to subsidize the gas price like it was in 2021.
And not for a very long time.« For household customers, the price per kilowatt hour was around seven cents in the second half of 2021.
Since then, it has more than doubled on average for existing customers, and new contracts are significantly more expensive.
SPD leader Saskia Esken expressed himself a little more ambitiously in the RTL/ntv program "Frühstart": "Something is coming together and I hope that we can lower the prices to a level that is at least before the war." Asked about it Esken said: “It is clear that it is about real consumption.
So that a family with four children naturally consumes more than a single person.« When setting a basic quota, it is »good and right to look at previous consumption and then take a share of it«.
As expected, the federal government stopped the planned gas levy of 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour on Thursday.
In addition, it provides up to 200 billion euros to curb gas and, in some cases, electricity prices.
On Friday, the Bundestag also decided to reduce VAT to seven instead of the previous 19 percent.
Habeck pointed out that the details of the gas price brake are still waiting for the results of an expert commission, which is expected to report in mid-October.
Saving energy remains essential despite the price brake.
»We still have to reduce gas consumption.
20 percent is the target for Germany,” said Habeck.
“If households don't bring consumption down, there's still a risk that we won't have enough gas in winter.” The Federal Network Agency had warned that private household consumption was too high.
In the past week it has risen by more than 14 percent compared to the previous year.
The week was also colder.
However, the savings are still necessary to avert a gas shortage in winter.
mike/Reuters
