Consumer prices
Middelberg against Scholz’s proposal to reduce VAT
So that consumers have to spend less money on food, Chancellor Scholz has spoken out in favor of tax relief. Union parliamentary group vice-president Middelberg criticized him sharply for this.
Union parliamentary group vice-president Mathias Middelberg described the reduction in VAT proposed by Olaf Scholz (SPD) as “cheap election campaign bait”. “Such broad relief requires a lot of budget resources and is not very targeted,” he told the German Press Agency. Nor would they promote employment or investment.
In order to ease the burden on private households, Scholz had spoken out in favor of reducing the reduced VAT rate for food from 7 to 5 percent. “That would help a lot of people who earn little money, and it wouldn’t be an excessive burden on the federal budget,” said Scholz on the ARD “Tagesthemen”.
Middelberg, however, questions whether the discounts would even reach consumers. His proposal therefore: “It would make sense to provide targeted relief for low-income earners in terms of taxes and social security contributions, which would arrive reliably and make working more worthwhile in relation to the receipt of citizen’s benefit.”
dpa
Source: Stern
