Esken wants excess profit tax: Debate about new relief package is picking up speed

In autumn, millions of people in Germany will have to reckon with significantly higher gas prices.

Esken wants excess profit tax: Debate about new relief package is picking up speed

In autumn, millions of people in Germany will have to reckon with significantly higher gas prices. The reason is the planned levy due to the reduction in Russian deliveries. But what about additional relief for low-income households?

In view of significant price increases for households due to the new state gas levy, the pressure on the federal government for additional relief is already increasing in the autumn. Thuringia's Left Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow is calling for a new relief package to be put together for the citizens. SPD leader Saskia Esken announced that her party would "make another attempt to introduce an excess profit tax for corporations that enrich themselves from the crisis." The head of the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations, Ramona Pop, told the editorial network Germany that a relief package for low-income households was necessary before the gas levy came: "The most important thing is to act quickly: if the gas levy comes, the aid package must be in place."

The state gas levy is to be introduced in October for companies and private households. It is intended to benefit gas suppliers who have to buy replacement gas volumes from Russia at high prices. The federal government had decided on the surcharge as part of the rescue package for the utility Uniper. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck from the Greens recently named a range of 1.5 to 5 cents per kilowatt hour in which the gas surcharge will move.

For an average four-person household with a consumption of 20,000 kilowatt hours per year, that would be 300 to 1000 euros. In addition, drastic market-driven price increases are gradually reaching customers anyway. Ramelow said in Erfurt: "The traffic light government is currently hardly keeping an eye on social arithmetic. The main reason is the blockade of the FDP." He called for a special prime ministerial conference with the federal government. The government had announced further relief when the levy was announced.

At the beginning of next year there is to be a housing benefit reform, and the group of beneficiaries is to be expanded. Also on January 1, 2023, a citizen’s allowance is to come, which is to replace the previous Hartz IV system. In the coalition, however, the exact conditions are still controversial. The government also wants to review rules on protection against dismissal so that tenants who are overwhelmed cannot have their rental contracts terminated or energy customers can have their supply contracts terminated.

Anyone who receives Hartz IV and saves on heating should benefit financially, according to a proposal by FDP parliamentary group leader Lukas Köhler. "For many people, the significantly increased prices are the most important incentive to save gas," said Köhler to the editorial network Germany. "However, anyone who receives unemployment benefit II does not have this incentive, since the costs are usually completely covered by the job center."

Köhler continued: "To change that, I propose that the ALG-II recipients be financially involved in the saved heating costs in the future." If you use less gas than in previous years, you will then be paid a large part of the heating costs saved as a result. "In this way, economical heating would not only have an impact on gas consumption, but also directly on the account of the unemployment benefit II recipients." Köhler spoke of a "financial injection without additional costs for the taxpayer - on the contrary, because the state would ultimately benefit if part of the money saved remained in its coffers".