Economics Minister Habeck wants to impose an industrial electricity price to compensate for locational disadvantages. The mechanical engineers reject this – and demand other reforms.
The German mechanical engineering association is calling for a tax reform instead of the industrial electricity price proposed by Economics Minister Robert Habeck. “Bury this structurally conservative and oversized subsidy project,” said VDMA President Karl Haeusgen on Tuesday, according to the text of the speech in Berlin. He also called for a more competitive and social tax system. To achieve this, companies should be relieved of the burden and people in the lower and middle income groups should have more net of their gross.
Habeck has proposed a state-subsidized, discounted industrial “bridge electricity price” that would cost billions. This is also controversial in the federal government.
The often medium-sized mechanical engineering companies are particularly concerned about bureaucracy, increasing protectionism in world trade and the shortage of skilled workers. What is necessary, among other things, is to make the Working Hours Act more flexible and to extend the average weekly and lifetime working hours, said Haeusgen. “40 hours per week must also become the new normal in the metal sector, just as it is a given in many other industries and EU countries.”
Haeusgen believes it is factually incorrect to talk about deindustrialization of Germany. “The share of industry in Germany’s gross domestic product has been constant at just over 20 percent for years.” This is a high level that many other countries would like to have.
Source: Stern
