Does the gas surcharge wobble?
Green party friends pierce internal Habeck doubts
Created: 2022-09-21 05:37
By: Franziska Schwarz
Robert Habeck (archive image) © Kay Nietfeld/dpa/archive image
Germany's largest gas importer Uniper is negotiating with the traffic light about a possible nationalization.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck is now said to have legal concerns.
Berlin – Economics Minister Robert Habeck is apparently questioning the controversial gas surcharge.
The Green politician made that clear at an internal Green meeting last week, reports the ARD capital studio, citing Green circles.
Accordingly, Habeck doubts that the surcharge would still be legal if the energy company Uniper were to be nationalized.
Should Uniper be nationalized, it should therefore be best accompanied by a replacement of the gas levy by comprehensive state aid,
tagesschau.de
further described Habeck's rumored point of view.
There is no official confirmation of the considerations so far.
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs said when asked by Bayerischer Rundfunk that she was not speculating about this.
What is the gas levy?
The gas surcharge is intended to relieve companies that have to buy expensive gas elsewhere because of restricted deliveries from Russia under Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin in order to fulfill their contracts.
This is intended to prevent company bankruptcies and delivery failures.
Private households and companies are to pay the levy of a good 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour, with VAT on gas consumption falling to seven percent.
Twelve companies had registered a claim to money from the levy.
The claims total around 34 billion euros - a large part of which is attributable to the ailing gas importers Uniper and Sefe (formerly Gazprom Germania).
However, there are also companies on the list that are not currently in economic difficulties.
Dispute over gas surcharge: Habeck against price cap
Uniper is an international energy group that sells electricity and gas to wholesale customers such as municipal utilities and industrial companies.
The company is heavily involved in gas trading with Russia and ran into financial difficulties during the current gas crisis due to the lack of Russian deliveries and the high costs of procuring replacements.
Uniper therefore applied for state aid at the beginning of July.
The first payments as part of the planned gas levy should reach the companies in November at the earliest.
This was announced on September 19 by a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Economics in Berlin.
The spokeswoman also announced that the changes to the gas levy are still in progress.
Accordingly, the group of eligible companies should be restricted so that only companies that are really in need benefit from the gas surcharge.
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In the energy crisis, consumers have to shoulder price increases and the additional gas surcharge.
Politicians from the Union of CDU/CSU and the left are therefore calling for a gas price cap that makes the high expenses more bearable.
Habeck has so far rejected such a concept.
(frs with material from AFP)
