Gas surcharge coming in October: This is important for consumers
Created: 08/18/2022, 07:02
By: Carina Blumenroth
The gas surcharge will come from October 2022 – industry and private households will be affected.
The aim is to ensure a stable gas supply with the gas surcharge.
Everything is getting more expensive - food, electricity and gas are definitely part of it.
These are, among other things, consequences of the war in Ukraine and inflation.
Employees can expect a compensation payment of 300 euros as part of the energy allowance in September or October.
This must be taxed.
However, the complete additional costs are not borne by this.
The gas surcharge will affect consumers – industry and private households will be affected.
It is now clear how many additional costs customers will have to face.
Gas levy 2022: Consumers will have to bear these costs
Gas is becoming significantly more expensive for industry and private customers.
It is now clear how much can be passed on to consumers.
The gas levy should be 2.419 cents per kilowatt hour.
The gas surcharge was calculated by Trading Hub Europe, a joint venture of the gas transmission system operators.
The aim is to protect importers from possible insolvency, as they are currently having to buy gas at overpriced prices.
So far, the additional costs could not be passed on to consumers, but that will change from autumn 2022.
A household with a single-family house and an annual consumption of 20,000 kilowatt hours must reckon with additional costs of 480 euros per year.
In a two-person household, almost half the costs can be expected, as the
Bavarian broadcaster
reports.
However, this is dependent on the living space and the state of renovation of the house.
The gas levy is 2.419 cents per kilowatt hour.
From October 1st, 2022, the costs can be apportioned.
© Rene Traut/Imago
Gas levy 2022: VAT will be added
According to European law, VAT is added to the costs – Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner wanted to avert this and wrote to Brussels.
In the
ZDF summer interview
, Lindner said that the federal government did not want to benefit from VAT.
Lindner failed in Brussels with his request to waive VAT in the gas levy.
According to a commission spokesman, an exception to the delivery is not possible.
However, they want to find a solution together with Germany on how consumers can be relieved.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke out on Twitter in favor of relieving the burden on citizens: "It's getting more expensive - there's no getting around it.
Energy prices continue to rise.
But: With 30 billion euros we are already relieving the burden on the citizens.
And we're putting together another relief package.
We don't leave anyone alone with the higher costs.”
However, it is not yet known exactly what is planned and what this relief might look like.
Gas levy 2022: That's why it's necessary
The gas importers have delivery obligations – towards the public utilities and other customers, which they must comply with.
To do that, they had to get gas on the short-term market.
This is usually more expensive and the gas importers are currently bearing the costs themselves. They can pass the costs on to customers from October 1, 2022. Until this period, the gas importers will bear 100 percent of the additional costs themselves.
From October 1st, they will be relieved of 90 percent.
They continue to bear ten percent of the additional costs themselves. This is intended to protect gas importers from imminent insolvency.
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Gas surcharge 2022: This is what experts criticize
Criticism has been voiced by some economists who are demanding that consumers be relieved quickly.
Marcel Fratzscher, President of the German Institute for Economic Research, already gave the German Press Agency (dpa) a concrete proposal: "The best instrument are direct transfer payments such as an energy money of 100 euros per person and per month for the next 18 months."
The current situation, that the burdens are already clear, but the relief has not been communicated, is also criticized by the Vice President of the Social Association Germany (SoVD), Ursula Engelen-Kefer.
She told the
Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung
: "We cannot burden the vast majority of society with more and more burdens and at the same time leave them in the dark about how they will be supported." Relief should be decided quickly so that there are no unrest in the fall.
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Gas surcharge 2022: Then it will reach the customers
The gas surcharge will apply from October 2022 – but this could arrive a little later for customers, as reported by
Bayerischer Rundfunk
.
The Energy Industry Act regulates notice periods of four to six weeks to protect consumers.
The gas surcharge will therefore probably be shown on the bills from November or December.
According to the Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW), some consumers can expect suppliers to pass on the costs as early as October.
The Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) reports that the gas surcharge is billed monthly and can be adjusted every three months.
In principle, the period from October 1st to probably April 1st, 2024 is calculated for the collection of the gas surcharge.
The higher the compensation for importers, the more costs they can pass on to consumers.
If Russia delivers the contractually guaranteed gas quantities in full again, the amount will be set to zero.
Gas surcharge 2022: District heating not currently recorded
The BMWK report also reveals gaps as to which consumers are affected by the gas surcharge.
For example, people who use district heating are not covered by the gas surcharge.
This question is currently being examined (as of August 18, 2022).
Around 14 percent of households used district heating for heating last year, according to the Working Group on Energy Balances.
More than 46 percent of the district heating comes from gas.
Gas surcharge 2022: How to deal with fixed contracts?
It is also unclear how consumers who have concluded a fixed contract will be treated.
The Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection is also currently dealing with this.
Another levy is also planned that consumers may be affected: the gas storage levy.
The amount of this will probably be announced on August 18th.
The levy benefits Trading Hub Europe.
However, the Federal Ministry of Economics does not expect allocations of a “relevant size”, as reported by
Bayerischer Rundfunk
.
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