The gas surcharge is intended to protect gas importers from bankruptcy. However, even healthy companies are fundamentally entitled to support services. That should change.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has announced a legal review of the gas levy. A few companies “pushed in”, “who have now really earned a lot of money and do not need the levy of the population,” said the Green politician to entrepreneurs in Münster.
For reasons of equality before the law, these companies have a legal claim, Habeck continued. “But it is certainly not morally right for companies that – let me put it in Low German – to earn a pig’s money, then also say: Yes, and for the few loss of income that we have, we ask the population for it Help, they should also give us money.”
In this context, he announced: “We will take a very close look at it again to see if we can still find a legally secure way to end the incorrect use of these companies there.” The “world” had previously reported about it.
Lindner: We’re not afraid of corrections
Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner was open to possible improvements. “A measure of solidarity cannot serve to ensure that individual companies maintain their returns and make profits on them,” said the FDP leader on the ZDF program “Maybrit Illner”. You have to take a close look at that – he doesn’t know the facts, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) knows that much better. “But if there is a need to change something to make this tool more targeted so that consumers benefit, then we are not afraid to make corrections.”
Esken: Link the gas surcharge to the needs of the company
According to SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken, the payment of the gas surcharge to gas importers should be linked to the need of these companies. “Companies that do not need this support should not be supported with funds from customers or with tax money,” said Esken on Friday in the ZDF morning magazine.
“When it comes to the payment, it has to be clarified: Is it necessary? Does the company need this support to continue to ensure the supply? That is the goal of the gas levy – and not to secure returns.” Large corporations that earn a lot of money in other sectors, especially with the generation of electricity, are not in danger of struggling. “That’s why they shouldn’t benefit either.”
Hofreiter: Allocation in its current form is a mistake
The Greens politician Anton Hofreiter described the controversial gas levy in its current form as a mistake and called for the regulation to be revised. “The gas surcharge must change in such a way that companies that make huge profits simply do not benefit from it. That is not communicable,” said Hofreiter, who is chairman of the Europe Committee in the Bundestag, in the RTL / ntv program “Frühstart”. .
The gas levy was decided very quickly in the federal government and because of the difficult situation of the energy supplier Uniper, Hofreiter continued. However, one of the strengths of democratic politics is the ability to correct decisions. “Because mistakes happen, and there clearly was a mistake.”
The surcharge is intended to compensate for the sharply increased procurement costs of large importers such as Uniper due to the throttling of Russian gas deliveries in order to protect them from bankruptcy and the German energy system from collapse. All gas customers are to pay an additional 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour from October, private households as well as companies. About half of all apartments in Germany are heated with gas.
Source: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
