Gas and electricity price brake: how consumers will soon be relieved
Created: 11/27/2022, 2:30 p.m
By: Jan-Frederik Wendt
Price caps for electricity and gas are to apply from 2023.
What can consumers expect?
Berlin - The federal cabinet has paved the way for the gas and electricity price brakes planned for next year.
As the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Friday afternoon (November 25), the two draft laws to combat the energy crisis have now cleared the next hurdle.
The Bundestag and Bundesrat should finally decide on the energy brakes in December so that they can come into force as planned in the coming year.
This is reported by fr.de.
The price brakes mean that consumers will initially not directly feel the full extent of the price increases for energy.
A corresponding cabinet decision provides for a cap on the price of gas for households at twelve cents per kilowatt hour.
For companies with a gas consumption of 1.5 million kilowatt hours per year, the price should be capped at seven cents.
According to the cabinet decision, a kilowatt hour of electricity should not cost consumers more than 40 cents.
District heating customers should also be relieved: for them, the price should be 9.5 cents up to the 80 percent limit.
Gas and electricity price brake: Government wants to receive savings incentives
The federal government wants to maintain the savings incentive for consumers.
The price brakes for private households will therefore only apply to 80 percent of the respective previous year's consumption.
If you consume more, you have to pay the normal market price for every additional kilowatt hour despite the brakes.
For companies, the gas price is to be capped for 70 percent of consumption, based on consumption in 2021.
The flame of a gas stove burns in a kitchen.
© Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa/symbol image
The electricity costs are 40 cents above the prices before the energy crisis - despite the price brake.
According to the Brandenburg consumer advice center, before the energy crisis, customers paid around 20 to 30 cents for the same amount.
Gas and electricity price brakes apply to private households, associations and companies
The planned relief is limited to April 2024 and should take effect from March 2023.
Citizens and entrepreneurs should also be relieved retrospectively for January and February.
The benefits in March for the two previous months should be taken into account.
The electricity and gas price brake apply to private households, associations and companies.
However, special regulations apply to large companies.
Price brakes for heating oil, pellets and liquid gas are not planned because gas in particular is becoming more expensive.
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Private individuals with a high income should have to pay tax on the gas and electricity price brake.
This regulation should apply to everyone who has to pay the solidarity surcharge - i.e. citizens who pay an annual income tax of 16,965 euros or more.
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In addition, the government has already decided on emergency aid for gas customers in December as well as further one-off payments - in the amount of a monthly advance payment.
Households and smaller companies with an annual consumption of up to 1.5 million kilowatt hours are to receive this payment.
The amount of the relief is calculated on the basis of one-twelfth of the annual consumption that the supplier had previously forecast - and on the basis of the December gas price.
Anyone who pays the gas costs directly to the gas supplier should not receive the December transfer.
Tenants should receive the 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.
(Jan Wendt)
