As of: March 1, 2024, 12:15 p.m
By: Bona Hyun
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From March and April, millions of households in Germany will have to reckon with rising costs for electricity, gas and district heating.
The changes at a glance.
Berlin – The high energy prices are becoming an additional burden for households.
From March 1st, millions of gas, electricity and district heating customers will have to expect higher prices.
In addition, the tax rate for gas and district heating will also increase from the end of the month.
Gas will be more expensive from March – high energy prices are weighing on Germany
From March 1st, 89 basic suppliers will increase the labor price for gas or electricity.
Another 17 providers will follow from April 1st.
It is expected that other providers could follow from May 1st.
This is reported by the consumer portal
Chip
.
A kilowatt hour of gas currently costs consumers an average of 10.37 cents (as of January 2024) per kilowatt hour.
In January, a model household (20,000 kWh of useful energy per year) paid
around 2,074 euros per year for gas, according to the comparison portal
Verivox .
According to ZEW President Achim Wambach, consumers and companies in Germany will have to prepare for comparatively high energy prices in the future.
© Patrick Pleul/dpa
Due to the full VAT rate, which was suspended due to the energy price crisis, gas costs per household will increase significantly from 2024.
From the end of March, a VAT rate of 19 percent will apply again instead of seven percent.
For a family of four, returning to the old tax rate means a cost increase of 293 euros per year.
This emerges from an invoice from
Verifox
for
Bild
.
High energy prices from March – what does that mean for district heating customers?
The adjustment in VAT also affects the prices for district heating. The price trend is apparently upwards.
“In 18 of the 21 networks examined, the labor price in January 2024 is above the 9.5 cents per kilowatt hour set as part of the energy price brakes,” says a special survey by the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (VZBV) for Spiegel
.
In Frankfurt am Main, Halle and Hamburg, labor prices are below 9.5 cents.
The price development of 21 district heating networks was checked in January 2024. At this point, the energy price brakes, which capped district heating costs for consumers at 9.5 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), were removed.
If the VAT reduction expires at the end of March, the new monthly additional burden could be between 15 and 174 euros per household, according to VZBV invoices.
Customers are usually tied to the energy supplier for between five and ten years (for new contracts).
According to focus
, a special right of termination is
difficult because district heating is a monopoly.
Conversely, this means that customers are exposed to price increases and there is no alternative provider.
Raising VAT for gas and heat to 19 percent
Services that entrepreneurs provide to their customers are subject to sales tax.
Sales tax only applies to final consumers.
The sales tax for electricity is 19 percent and is levied on the total sum of the producer and sales share, network fees and other government-imposed price components, writes the Federal Ministry of Economics.
In order to cushion the extraordinary financial situation, the federal government temporarily reduced the VAT on gas from 19 percent to the reduced rate of percent retroactively to October 1, 2022.
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Electricity will also become more expensive from March – 106 companies are likely to increase prices
In addition to higher gas prices, there is also a threat of the next price increase for electricity.
106 companies nationwide want to increase prices.
According to the comparison portal Verifox,
regional basic suppliers have announced a total of 224 price increases of an average of 8 percent
for March and April 2024 .
A three-person household with an annual consumption of 4,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) will have to pay an average of 128 euros more in the future.
According to the Federal Network Agency, 24 percent of electricity customers receive the local basic supply tariff.
The number of households affected is therefore around 2.6 million.
During the same period, there were also 53 electricity price reductions of an average of 8 percent, writes
Verifox
.
With the same consumption, this would correspond to an average reduction of 143 euros.