What was actually called a relief package and promised 300 euros more for almost everyone for September turns out to be a bureaucratic monster, especially for employers. In addition, there is a gas surcharge that everyone has to pay from October and that nullifies all attempts at relief.
Relief package, gas surcharge, next relief package – and what will people like? Definitely higher expenses than income and a lot of bureaucracy. Instead of relief, it is a burden, even if Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Finance Minister Christian Lindner and Economics Minister Robert Habeck, this trio of men at the head of the government, are currently trying to manage the energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine as best they can. However, the success is moderate. If the three were on the board of a company, it could well be that the supervisory board and angry customers would now ensure their departure.
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Because these days three topics are coming together, all of which provoke resentment: On Monday it will become clear how high the so-called gas levy will be, i.e. the money that the utility companies are charging their customers in addition and contrary to long-term supply contracts, because they are doing it themselves Can no longer raise money for the increasingly expensive gas.
A few days later, with the payslip for September, workers and employees will receive a gross wage increase of 300 euros from the Second Relief Package. And finally, because the government knows that one will not outweigh the other, further concrete steps are planned for next week announced the third relief package.
But first things first. Russia’s war against Ukraine is disrupting the energy markets. “Russia uses energy as a weapon and is not a reliable energy supplier,” states the Ministry of Economy led by Habeck. Since mid-June, Russian suppliers have delivered less gas than agreed. Gas importers have to look for replacements and compensate for the supply failures at high prices.
Due to contractual regulations, they often cannot pass on the additional costs to customers. This results in significant losses for the gas importers concerned, which some of them can no longer cover. Uniper has therefore already been picked up by the state as a rescue candidate, because otherwise the security of supply would be in question. A hurriedly amended Energy Security Act therefore now creates the possibility of distributing the additional costs incurred when purchasing substitute gas by means of a levy on gas consumers.
The monthly surcharge is to be levied on all gas consumers from October 1, 2022 and is expected to end on April 1, 2024. The amount of the surcharge will be announced on Monday. The Ministry of Economics is already warning: “The financial burden of the levy is considerable. Households will face additional costs of several hundred euros.”
That’s why the government decided in May, just before the gas surcharge hits citizens, in a politically not clumsy way, to give them money, namely 300 euros for everyone who works. However, this gift has two flaws: the money has to be taxed, with most people less than two thirds of it actually arrives. And the gift is associated with a bureaucratic effort that is second to none. On the information pages of the Ministry of Finance led by Christian Lindner, there are now questions and implementing regulations for the distribution of the gift of money, which are getting longer every day: there are 64 such regulations that regulate details that not everyone had thought of before.
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For example, it is about how the self-employed get the money. You will now all receive a new, amended tax assessment for your advance payments to the tax office, which may be EUR 300 lower. If you then do the final statement for the tax year 2022, you have to tax this lower advance payment as “other income”.
Mini-jobbers receive the money tax-free, but only if they make a living from the mini-job, which the employer must check. Anyone who is maternity receives the money, but only if she also receives maternity benefit. And anyone who is employed but also works independently at the same time receives the gift twice, but is liable to prosecution if he does not pay tax on it twice. This form of relief drives bureaucratic blossoms in the finance ministry led by the FDP, whose boss has opposed any form of additional bureaucracy.
Because the government suspects that this part of the relief package II will cause more trouble than joy against the background of the upcoming gas levy, it wants to put another relief package on the line. According to the ideas of Scholz, Habeck and Lindner, it contains at least the following points: From January 1, 2023, there should be a higher housing benefit for the needy. The support previously called Hartz IV is then called citizen money and is also to be increased. Tenants who cannot pay their utilities should be protected. And companies that have their backs against the wall because of energy prices can slip under a government umbrella that promises them grants, cheap loans and guarantees. Finance Minister Lindner made the proposal to mitigate the cold progression, which sometimes makes gross wage increases a net loss for employees, and the Greens would love to extend the nine-euro ticket for local transport beyond August, knows but also not how that could be paid for.
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The bottom line is the conclusion: Daily life is becoming significantly more expensive, which is mainly due to a completely messed-up state-initiated energy supply. The consequences of this have become visible since the Russian regime has developed from a business partner in terms of energy supply to an adversary.
The article “Monday shows how expensive the messed-up energy policy is” comes from WirtschaftsKurier.
