The Bavarian Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger has called on the federal government to completely withdraw the gas levy. “The gas surcharge must be stamped out as quickly as possible,” said the Free Voters chairman of the “Augsburger Allgemeine”. It is difficult to distinguish between legitimate recipients and free-rider effects. If importers are in trouble, the state would have to buy gas itself if necessary.
When it comes to the power supply, it is “a failure to provide assistance to our country not to have decided long ago to extend the nuclear power plants that are still in operation and to currently saw Gundremmingen in half instead of striving for a restart,” said Aiwanger. The nuclear power plant in the Bavarian municipality of Gundremmingen was shut down at the turn of the year.
The massive gas generation prevents a blackout. But energy costs could quickly lead to supply bottlenecks for many products, including groceries. “Saving energy is more important to the federal government than maintaining jobs and security of supply,” criticized the Bavarian Minister for Economic Affairs.
Klingbeil advocates improvements
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil welcomed the improvements to the gas levy announced by Economics Minister Robert Habeck. It is important to correct mistakes quickly, he said in the ZDF “heute-journal”. “That’s what Robert Habeck is doing now,” he added. “It cannot be conveyed to people that companies that make billions in profits now get billions in tax money on top of that.”
With the correction, the Greens politician Habeck wants to prevent companies that do not need it economically from benefiting from this levy on private households and industry. Klingbeil said that the gas levy should actually avert insolvencies. “What you can’t do is maximize profits.”
Regarding the debate about high energy and food prices, Klingbeil said the government was working on a third relief package that would come “very soon”. This is “a matter of days”. The package must be large, but also targeted and this time pensioners and students should also benefit.
