The Netherlands will lower the fuel excise duty as of April, a month later the cabinet will lower the VAT on the energy bill. Families at social assistance level receive an extra large allowance through the municipalities for their rapidly increased expenditure on energy. The package will cost about 2.7 billion euros, money that the cabinet largely collects from the sharply increased natural gas revenues.
However, experts point out that for many people the government compensation does not cover the greatly increased costs. Asked about this on television program WNL on Sunday, Prime Minister Rutte says that he “does not rule out” new measures. “But there are limits to what we can do,” he emphasizes.
Long-term impact due to war
According to Rutte, there is a chance that our purchasing power will be hit for a long time. According to him, our continent will be ‘long-term’ with the impact of the war currently raging in Ukraine. “Our economy will feel it. This is the biggest geopolitical blow dealt post-war.”
The Prime Minister seems strongly that the Netherlands will end up in a recession, as has been suggested here and there. “That’s too gloomy. And it is not wise to speculate about that. Our economy is running like a charm.”
Rutte calls the fact that Russia carried out a rocket attack on a military base near the border with NATO country Poland last night ‘a worrying development’. However, he does not think that Putin is shifting his sights. “Everything points to them avoiding confrontation with NATO.”