As of: January 22, 2024, 11:18 a.m
By: Lars-Eric Nievelstein
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With the abolition of subsidies for agricultural diesel, German farmers would face costs running into millions.
The CO₂ tax could result in a double burden.
The farmers are trying to avert this.
Berlin – The first wave of protests by farmers is over, but the disputes between farmers and the federal government are not.
“If nothing happens with agricultural diesel now, the next protests and actions will come next week,” said the President of the German Farmers’ Association, Joachim Rukwied, on January 18th.
What the traffic light government had announced so far had “increased the farmers’ anger even further instead of calming them down”.
The focus is largely on agricultural diesel and vehicle tax.
However, the increased CO₂ tax also costs billions.
CO₂ tax costs farmers 302 million euros
A question from MP Dietmar Bartsch (Die Linke) revealed how high these costs are.
According to figures from the Ministry of Economics, the CO₂ price for agricultural diesel is expected to total around 302 million euros in 2025.
For comparison: in 2023 it was still 164 million euros.
The left-wing politician called for the burden to be taken into account and for farmers to be given tax advantages on agricultural diesel.
The CO₂ tax is nothing new - the previous government had already decided to specifically make carbon dioxide emissions more expensive.
Anyone who burns diesel or other fossil fuels while driving and thereby pollutes the air pays an annual tax that increases.
Only at the beginning of the year did the CO₂ levy per ton of CO₂ increase to 45 euros (previously 30 euros); from 2025 it should be 55 euros per ton.
Double burden for farmers due to traffic light plans
This hits farmers particularly hard.
Their machines often have higher fuel consumption compared to vehicles in the big city.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs assumes a total consumption of two billion liters of agricultural diesel per year.
If the subsidies end up being eliminated, one could speak of a double burden - not only will there be no money from the state, the taxes due to the CO₂ price will also become more expensive.
The ministry announced that the CO₂ price share was 8.0 cents per liter in 2023.
CO₂ tax costs farmers millions.
The loss of subsidies for agricultural diesel could result in a double burden.
© IMAGO / Achille Abboud
“The federal government is apparently completely ignoring the fact that farmers will have to pay an additional 247 million euros for the CO₂ price on their agricultural diesel this year,” says politician Bartsch.
The government would not understand the situation of many farms if it also deprived farmers of their tax benefits.
“The bottom line – with the CO₂ price, without agricultural diesel discounts – is an additional burden for farmers of over 700 million euros,” calculated Bartsch.
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“There may be an eruption”
In agriculture, everything currently revolves around the Green Week in Berlin.
At a question time on site, the President of the German Farmers' Association called on the federal government and the parliamentary groups to withdraw their plans for agricultural diesel.
“The responsibility now lies solely with the federal government and the government factions.
Only they can prevent more widespread farmers’ protests.”
According to the current agricultural economic barometer, politics is responsible for the “once again lower mood” in agriculture – and also for the “stubbornly high costs of inputs”.
This assessment already existed before the “unspeakable tax increase plans for agricultural diesel and vehicle tax”.
What the farmers' new “actions” will look like and when they will take place is currently (January 22nd) not yet clear.
Only this much is certain for Joachim Rukwied: “There may be an eruption”.
With material from dpa