Gas deduction in December: when the one-off payment will come and how gas customers will receive relief from the state
Created: 2022-11-15, 2:22 p.m
By: Linus Prien
Gas prices have risen immensely in recent months.
While the government is working on a gas levy, an interim solution is to be used: the state will pay a gas advance.
Berlin - Rising energy costs are a huge burden for many Germans.
The traffic light coalition is planning a gas price brake for the coming year.
Until then, however, the state should now take over the down payment in December.
On Monday (November 14), the Federal Council passed the so-called Natural Gas Emergency Aid Act, which provides for relief as a one-off payment for the gas deduction.
Households and commercial consumers should be supported in this way before the gas price brake takes effect.
This is expected to start in March - but there is still no draft law that would be ready for cabinet consideration.
According to the government, the planned one-time payment of the gas discount in December is in the “higher single-digit billion range”.
Gas deduction in December: when the one-off payment will come as a relief for gas customers
The gas discount in December is intended as a bridging measure until the gas price brake is supposed to take effect, which is planned for next March.
However, after the approval of the one-off emergency aid as a one-off payment for the gas deduction, the federal government is dealing with a possible advance to February 2023 in order to make it possible to relieve district heating and gas customers earlier.
When is the gas cut?
In December, the state pays the installment payment (amount of the September installment) for district heating and gas customers.
The cap on the gas price brake: From March 2023 to at least April 2024, a gross price of 12 cents per kilowatt hour should apply to 80 percent of gas consumption.
The law starts with taking over the down payment of one twelfth of the annual consumption in December.
Gas Relief: Homes and small businesses will receive gas relief from the state in December
So who gets the gas discount?
The relief in December affects private households and smaller companies with an annual consumption of up to 1.5 million kilowatt hours.
Certain facilities in the care and education sector and in medical care also receive emergency aid, even if their consumption is higher.
The law, which has now been approved by the Federal Council, stipulates that natural gas suppliers credit consumers with a one-time relief amount.
The amount is therefore to be offset against the first invoice from the natural gas supplier, the billing period of which covers the month of December 2022.
Gas deduction in December: an expert explains how gas customers receive the one-off payment from the state
While tenants, homeowners and families continue to receive one-off payments from the state, the amount of gas discount relief in December 2022 will be calculated based on one-twelfth of the annual consumption that the supplier had previously forecast and the December gas price.
In this way, "savings incentives" would be retained, said the parliamentary state secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Michael Kellner, in the Bundesrat.
Tenants should receive the December relief with the next annual heating bill.
Landlords have one year to prepare and submit the statement, but must notify the estimated credit as early as this December.
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Gas customers who pay their energy bills by
SEPA direct debit
would not need to take action on the gas deduction in December, since the provider is under an obligation not to collect the money.
In the case of a monthly
transfer
, gas customers must independently stop their payment for December: However, this only applies to the amount for gas or district heating.
The amount for gas or district heating must be transferred again after the one-off payment of the gas deduction from January 2023.
Customers who have placed a
standing
order must change it twice.
The amount for gas or district heating does not have to be transferred in December, but the standing order has to be set up again in January.
Finanztip
editor-in-chief Herrmann-Josef Tenhagen
recommends the following procedure for
RTL
recipients: If the gas bill is paid by direct debit, it is up to the gas company not to collect the money.
If you have a standing order, you should suspend it for the month.
In the event that you pay the gas bill by bill, you should simply not pay for a month.
To find out how much you don't have to pay, you can simply look at the discount for the past month.
(AFP/LP)