Status: 27/09/2023, 16:13 p.m.
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
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From next year, gas and district heating will probably become a lot more expensive again. Finance Minister Lindner would then like to raise the VAT back to the normal rate.
Berlin – The prices for gas and electricity have fallen. But at the end of the year, some aid measures against high energy prices will expire. This could lead to price jumps in the middle of the heating season, warns the energy industry and also the economist Veronika Grimm.
Finance Minister Lindner wants to raise VAT on gas and district heating earlier
They are calling for the price brakes for electricity and gas decided by the traffic light government last year to be extended at least until spring. The VAT rate for gas and district heating, which has been temporarily reduced from 19 to 7 percent, is also to remain lower in order to signal stability and security in energy prices to energy customers, according to the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW).
Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) wants to raise the VAT on gas and district heating back to the normal rate from the beginning of 2024. (Archive image) © Michael Kappeler/dpa
But Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) wants to raise the VAT on gas and district heating back to the normal rate from the beginning of 2024. It was a crisis-related relief, in addition to the gas and electricity price brakes, Lindner said on Wednesday at the government questioning in the Bundestag.
The price development has not been as bad as feared last year. The normal VAT rate of 19 percent could thus be paid again three months earlier, while the price brakes would continue until spring 2024. "That's justifiable."
VAT on gas: Earlier increase would flush 2.1 billion euros more into the coffers
However, the coalition partner SPD sees it differently, the Greens are still hesitating. "Especially in the heating phase, we cannot simply return to a higher VAT rate at an early stage," wrote the financial policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Michael Schrodi, on X, formerly Twitter.
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After all, the state could then look forward to large revenues: According to the Ministry of Finance, the earlier increase in VAT on gas would flush about 2.1 billion euros more into the coffers of the state as a whole.
With material from Reuters
