SPD leader Klingbeil calls for excess profit tax - "question of social cohesion"

Created: 08/27/2022, 20:22

By: Bettina Menzel

Lars Klingbeil, Secretary General of the SPD, pictured at the start of the Lower Saxony SPD election campaign in Cuxhaven on August 26th.

© IMAGO/Janine Schmitz/photothek.de

Rising energy prices are worrying people in Germany.

In the discussion about relief, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil advocates an excess profit tax.

Berlin – Energy prices are skyrocketing, the nine-euro ticket is ending and the gas levy is coming.

Consumer protection organizations are therefore demanding relief and warn that more and more people can no longer pay their bills.

SPD leader Lars Klingbeil is in favor of a temporary excess profit tax and wants to redistribute the money to people with low incomes.

SPD boss Klingbeil for excess profit tax: "Redistribute random profits"

In view of the high inflation, the federal government is planning a third relief package.

The SPD boss is also in favor of further consumer relief.

Pensioners and students should also benefit from the third relief package, they have been neglected so far, said Klingbeil at an election campaign event in Lower Saxony.

State elections are held in the federal state in October, Klingbeil comes from Soltau in Lower Saxony.

The SPD leader believes that introducing an excess profit tax on crisis profits from large companies is the right thing to do.

“We can redistribute random profits from large companies to people with an income of 1,500, 2,000 or 3,000 euros.

This is also a question of social cohesion in our society.

Everyone has to do their part so that we can get through this challenging time well, ”added the SPD leader in the newspapers of the Funke media group.

It is about a temporary taxation of the billions in profits that some companies have due to scarcer energy reserves and skyrocketing prices.

The money should be redistributed to people with low incomes.

While the Greens and the SPD are in favor of an excess profit tax, the FDP is against it.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz showed understanding for the demand, but considers the introduction of such a levy to be "unrealistic".

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Klingbeil on the gas levy: "Companies that have earned billions collect tax money"

The gas surcharge is to apply in Germany from October.

2.4 cents per kilowatt hour will then be due, and value added tax on gas consumption will be reduced to seven percent at the same time.

Criticism came from all sides, even from the SPD.

Because the money does not only flow to companies that are threatened with insolvency.

It is now "important that we work together to eliminate the technical errors that happened in the gas levy," said SPD leader Klingbeil on Saturday to the news portal

.

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 during the crisis still collect billions in tax money."