Status: 18.12.2023, 21:15 PM
By: Amy Walker
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The German government has found a solution to its money problem. New taxes, including a tax on plastics and kerosene, are intended to make the debt brake possible in 2024.
Berlin – One month after the ruling from Karlsruhe on the budget, the government has overcome its financial difficulties. The agreement of the three party leaders is clear. The debt brake is to be complied with again from 2024, which will be made possible by savings elsewhere. For example, cuts are planned in the citizens' allowance and in electricity price subsidies. Despite the FDP's initial rejection of tax increases, an increase in the carbon tax and the introduction of two new taxes are planned: a kerosene tax on domestic flights and a plastic tax.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) initially held back on details. But in the afternoon, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit confirmed some information, including on the plastic tax.
EU plastic tax: Companies will pay the plastic tax from 2024
The German government is planning to pass on the EU plastic tax to companies. Hebestreit explained that the federal government wants to demand the annual plastic levy of 1.4 billion euros, which it pays to the EU, from the companies that put plastic into circulation in the future. So the federal government wants to save money by passing on the cost of plastic to companies. These are likely to pass on the costs to consumers.
The EU plastic levy was introduced in 2021. For every kilogram of packaging waste that cannot be recycled, 80 cents are due. However, the EU leaves it up to the member states to decide whether to pay this levy from the regular budget or pass it on to the companies that put plastic into circulation. Germany has so far done the former, transferring the money from the treasury to the EU. However, this is now to be ended. In 2021 and 2022, Germany had to transfer 1.4 billion euros each to the EU, which corresponds to about 1.7 million tons of plastic waste.
A discarded plastic bottle floats in the Red Sea off Egypt. © Andrey Nekrasov/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
As the company Deutsche Recycling explains on its website, there are already other countries in the EU that do not finance the plastic tax from the national budget. For example, since the beginning of 2023, manufacturers and importers of plastic in Spain have had to pay 45 cents per kilo of plastic; and in Italy, a tax on single-use packaging will apply from 2024. These could therefore serve as role models for Germany. However, the federal government wants to save the full 1.4 billion euros, suggesting that the full 80 cents per kilogram of plastic will be charged.
Costs for consumers: 30 euros per year extra
How could this affect the lives of citizens? That depends on whether the companies pass on the new plastic levy 1:1 to their customers. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy responds to X (formerly Twitter) to the accusation that this would make everything more expensive for consumers: "Or the plastic manufacturers reduce their profits and thus offset the new levy. Taxes or duties are not necessarily passed on 1:1."
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If the plastic manufacturers do pass on the levy 1:1, then it depends on how much plastic you buy. According to the 2019 "Plastic Atlas", Germans produce an average of 38 kilograms of plastic waste per capita per year – which is higher than the EU average of 24 kilograms per year. For an average German, 30.4 euros per year would be incurred for a plastic tax.
The real goal of the plastic levy is, of course, to reduce plastic waste. If the tax makes plastic more expensive, environmentalists hope that it will be used less. Something similar is hoped for by the increase in the CO₂ price, which is to rise to 45 euros per ton of CO₂ according to the new traffic light decision.