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Coalition examines relief for state gas surcharge

2022-08-03T14:48:54.102Z


Coalition examines relief for state gas surcharge Created: 08/03/2022, 16:42 The planned gas levy is likely to result in significant price increases. The coalition is now examining relief for consumers. © Fabian Sommer/dpa In the fall, a government levy will make consumer gas prices even more expensive. How should the state take countermeasures if households cannot bear the burden? Berlin - Du


Coalition examines relief for state gas surcharge

Created: 08/03/2022, 16:42

The planned gas levy is likely to result in significant price increases.

The coalition is now examining relief for consumers.

© Fabian Sommer/dpa

In the fall, a government levy will make consumer gas prices even more expensive.

How should the state take countermeasures if households cannot bear the burden?

Berlin - Due to the planned state gas levy with significant price increases, there is growing concern that private households will be overburdened financially.

The coalition is examining the elimination of VAT on the levy.

The German Association of Cities brought state aid for overburdened households into play.

"The federal government should reduce the surcharge through state subsidies if prices on the market continue to rise and there is a risk of too great a burden on consumers and the economy," said Markus Lewe, President of the German Press Agency.

The state gas levy is to be introduced in October for companies and private households.

It is intended to benefit gas suppliers who have to buy replacements for missing, cheaper gas volumes from Russia at high prices.

“The levy must not be a basis for further tax revenue.

That is why it is currently being examined whether the VAT can be added to the levy," said the energy policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Michael Kruse, to the dpa on Wednesday after a special session of the Bundestag's energy and climate committee.

"If this is not technically possible, it is clear to me that the additional government revenue must be returned to consumers together with further relief."

There should be no additional burden

A spokesman for the Ministry of Finance said that according to the current legal situation, the gas levy is part of the assessment basis for calculating sales tax.

The ministry is examining ways to ensure that gas customers do not incur any additional burdens in this context.

The CDU energy politician Andreas Jung told the “Welt” that the federal government must immediately withdraw its plan to add 19 percent VAT to the gas levy.

"The state must not make money from this additional burden."

There are also legal problems with the implementation of the levy.

Specifically, the question is whether customers with fixed-price contracts have to pay the levy.

A spokesman for Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) spoke on Wednesday of a detail that had to be clarified.

Habeck recently named a range of 1.5 to 5 cents per kilowatt hour in which the gas levy is expected to move.

For an average four-person household with an annual consumption of 20,000 kilowatt hours, that would be 300 to 1,000 euros.

In addition, drastic market-driven price increases are gradually reaching customers anyway.

High additional costs possible

According to calculations by the comparison portal Verivox, the additional costs including VAT range from 1.5 cents to 5 cents per kilowatt hour for a single household with an annual consumption of 5000 kilowatt hours of gas per year between 89 euros and 298 euros.

In a couple household with an annual consumption of 12,000 kilowatt hours, the additional costs would be between 214 and 714 euros, for a household with a single-family house and an annual consumption of 20,000 kilowatt hours between 357 and 1190 euros.

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According to Verivox, if VAT were to be eliminated, the single household would be relieved by between 14 and 48 euros, the couple household by 34 to 114 euros and the household with a single-family house by between 57 and 190 euros.

City Council President Lewe said that in the current energy crisis it was right for consumers to be involved in making provisions for a secure energy supply.

“But the gas surcharge must not overwhelm people financially.

It needs to be set judiciously and spread out over a period of time, rather than going up and down in the short term every few months.

Otherwise we have no planning security whatsoever for the end customer.”

There is already a debate going on in the coalition as to what additional relief needs to be provided and whether this needs to come at the same time as the levy.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had announced a major housing benefit reform at the beginning of next year.

Lewe said the announced housing benefit reform was correct because it would give more people the right to housing benefit.

"Today's one-time heating subsidy must also soon be converted into a permanent flat-rate heating subsidy." dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-08-03

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