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Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens)
Photo: Britta Pedersen / picture alliance / dpa
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil accuses Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) of "technical errors" in the gas levy.
Habeck undoubtedly has an interesting communication style, "and of course we notice that it is well received by the public," said Klingbeil to "Zeit Online".
At the same time, the 44-year-old warned: "In the end, it's not just nice words that count in politics, what matters most is the substance - that's what we're measured by."
Therefore, according to Klingbeil, "it is now important, for example, that we jointly eliminate the technical errors that occurred during the gas allocation".
For him, the criteria for when a company receives money from the levy have not yet been understood.
“It cannot be that companies that earned billions in the crisis are still collecting billions in tax money,” said the SPD chairman.
That had to be “clarified again”.
The gas levy of a good 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour consumed is to be paid by private households and companies from October.
The money is intended to relieve companies that have to buy expensive gas elsewhere to fulfill their contracts because of the reduced deliveries from Russia.
This should prevent company bankruptcies and ultimately delivery failures.
According to the current regulations, companies that are not currently in economic difficulties or are even making high profits in other business areas would also benefit from the levy.
This also triggered massive criticism within the traffic light coalition.
Habeck therefore wants to review his previous plans for the levy again.
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