From the BZ editorial team
The botched law about the controversial gas surcharge is crumbling. Also because the “inventor”, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (53, Greens), himself doubts it.
As the ARD capital studio reports, Habeck questions the gas levy. Habeck made this clear in an internal meeting of the Greens last week. The minister justified his withdrawal from the levy with “doubts in terms of financial constitutional law”.
These doubts were based on a report by a law firm commissioned by Habeck’s ministry, the ARD capital city studio quoted government circles as saying. The Chancellery, Minister of Justice and Ministry of Finance have confirmed the previous path.
With the gas surcharge, the government wants to support energy companies such as the gas importer Uniper, which has already applied for state aid worth billions. Habeck made it clear in the meeting that the company’s financing requirements are significantly higher than when the first rescue package was negotiated, the ARD further reported.
Uniper said last week that since the signing of this stabilization package, the European energy crisis had “further worsened, since no Russian gas volumes are currently being delivered through Nord Stream 1 and both gas and electricity prices are very high and volatile”. That is why a majority stake by the federal government is also being considered.
How the chaos surrounding the gas levy is to be resolved remains unclear. Already at the end of August, Habeck grudgingly announced a revision of the law to relieve the population – because there was a fear that companies not in need could also claim the benefits of a surcharge.
Habeck complained that some companies had “pushed their way” into the pool of potential aid recipients. Those who “have now really earned a lot of money and do not need the levy of the population”.
At the time, Habeck said it was “certainly not morally right for companies that, let me say it in Low German: earned a pig’s money, to then also say: Yes, and for the few loss of income that we have, we ask the population for help, they should also give us money.”
Gas customers were originally supposed to pay the levy of a good 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour from October. The money is intended to relieve companies that have to buy expensive gas elsewhere to fulfill their contracts because of the reduced deliveries from Russia. The resulting additional costs are to be reimbursed to 90 percent of the companies from October. This is intended to prevent company bankruptcies and ultimately delivery failures.