Image: VOLKER Weihbold
It was intended as an immediate measure. “But immediate action looks different”, says Upper Austria’s Chamber of Commerce President Doris Hummer. And in her view, climate protection minister Leonore Gewessler of the Greens is to blame for this. “What happens or doesn’t happen here is an impertinence and an impertinence for the companies”she says in an interview with the OÖ Nachrichten.
What angers local businesses? The energy-intensive companies, primarily industrial companies, have been waiting for more than 300 days for an announcement to be implemented that is intended to compensate them for the sharp rise in energy costs. “When electricity suppliers pass on the costs they incur for purchasing CO2 certificates in the EU emissions trading system to end consumers via the electricity price, this is referred to as indirect CO2 costs. A part of these indirect CO2 costs can be reimbursed to energy-intensive companies in the form of a subsidy. This is then referred to as electricity price compensation. The motivation behind this is, for example, the promotion of the electrification of processes”says the energy spokesman for the industry division in the WK Oberösterreich, Ernst Spitzbart.
waiting for millions
In the case of large companies, this compensation would amount to high single-digit or low double-digit millions. It was announced by the government in June 2022 and the draft was submitted on June 14. It should have come into force in the summer so that the companies could have applied for the aid in January 2023. Nothing has happened since then. Nothing has changed even after a report by OÖ Nachrichten in January 2023. A number of companies would not have applied for the conventional energy cost subsidy in order not to receive double funding. And now threaten to fall over both.
If the law is not passed quickly, it will no longer come into force this year. And the companies can no longer apply for compensation for 2022, criticizes the WKO.
According to the ministry, negotiations are ongoing between the parliamentary groups. However, it should be prevented “that corporate dividends are paid for with tax money”.
In the ÖVP it is said that the Greens wanted to combine the decision with another law.
Source: Nachrichten
