Bavaria’s Prime Minister Söder expresses concerns about the planned reduction in electricity taxes and calls for more comprehensive measures.
According to CSU boss Markus Söder, the reduction in electricity tax planned by the leaders of the traffic light coalition is not enough. It’s a first step, “but like everything at the traffic lights, it’s late and hesitant. And then something is done, but it’s not enough,” said the Bavarian Prime Minister after a meeting of the CSU board in Munich.
There have been problems with electricity prices for business and industry for months, said Söder. “There have been no solutions for months.” The Union has been in favor of reducing electricity taxes for months. “Large energy-intensive industries such as chemistry say that this is far from enough. This is actually just a stipulation of current developments and it prevents an even higher increase.”
The federal government wants to reduce the price of electricity for the manufacturing industry through tax reform. Among other things, the plans include a significant reduction in electricity tax for the years 2024 and 2025 for the manufacturing industry and an expansion of the current electricity price compensation for corporations that particularly suffer from high electricity prices. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) estimated the relief at up to twelve billion euros next year alone. The price brake should also apply for the years 2026 to 2028, provided that counter-financing is possible in the federal budget.
For Söder, the federal government’s “cardinal mistake” lies in the lack of a concept to reduce the price of electricity through its own electricity generation: “We will continue to have high electricity prices because we have to get electricity from somewhere else that is not yet available.” Renewable energies would still not be sufficient to cover demand “in any way” over the next five years.
Source: Stern
