The gas surcharge is causing financial problems for low-income households. Friedrich Merz demands a basic energy supply for households with low incomes as well as a reduction in value added tax and energy tax for energy sources.
Dear FOCUS Online readers,
There was no lack of warnings, but the traffic light coalition absolutely wanted to follow the proposal of the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs. In addition to the direct support of the company Uniper with 15 billion euros from the federal budget, an additional surcharge will be levied on all gas consumers. With this levy, an additional 30 billion euros are to be collected from consumers, plus VAT.
We informed the federal government of the VAT problem in good time. Shortly before the decision was made in the cabinet, the traffic light sent an urgent letter to Brussels, the answer came quickly and unequivocally: No exception for the Germans. The federal government has passed the levy as a statutory ordinance, the Bundestag will no longer be involved – unless it decides to abolish the levy. We submitted this application yesterday on behalf of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.
Up to this point, the federal government’s energy policy has been a mess. But that was still just the beginning. The Federal Minister of Economics complains that, in addition to Uniper, other well-earning companies are now applying for a share of the levy. Yes, Mister Minister, that’s what it’s like when the state sets up a honeypot! And when the public displeasure could no longer be ignored, the Chancellor hastily announced a reduction in VAT on gas and thus also on the surcharge from 19 percent to 7 percent.
But the Federal Chancellor cannot simply decide on this tax cut. Only the German Bundestag can pass it, and the Bundesrat must also agree, because the federal states bear half of the tax losses. Have the federal states been asked beforehand by the Federal Chancellor?
But even if the federal government saves its levy, the bigger problem with this idea remains: The levy plunges low-income households into major financial problems and many energy-intensive companies into bankruptcy. Given the economic situation our country has been in since Putin’s war, the levy is the biggest mistake the federal government has made – at least so far. There could have been better ways to secure the gas supply while keeping costs under control.
Months ago, we proposed to the coalition a basic energy supply for all low-income households and a reduction in value added tax and energy taxes on all energy sources. The prices then remained high enough to provide incentives for savings. For Uniper, a protective shield like Lufthansa would have offered itself. But this federal government prefers to first collect taxpayers’ money and then redistribute it patronizingly as it sees fit.
This is where the differences between the federal government and the Union are particularly obvious: a paternalistic state that promises to avert any disaster and to compensate for all disadvantages with money will ultimately fail. He calls extremists from right and left onto the scene. Private households, which are already burdened too much today, and the many companies that simply can no longer bear the whole chaos of German energy policy and are closing their sites are left behind.
The Federal Minister of Economics is facing his greatest political challenge.
Yours Friedrich Merz
Friedrich Merz is a lawyer and politician (CDU). From 1989 to 1994 he was a member of the European Parliament and from 1994 to 2009 of the German Bundestag. There he was chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group from 2000 to 2002. In 2018, Merz ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of the CDU, just like in 2021. Only at the third attempt was he elected party leader at the CDU party conference on January 22, 2022. Now Merz is again a member of parliament and chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.
In his “Mail von Merz” the CDU politician analyzes and comments on current political developments in Germany and beyond for the readers of FOCUS Online.
