fFor the gas price commission set up by the federal government, speed was more important than thoroughness. The members left no doubt about that when they presented their results – more precisely their interim report – on Monday. Unfortunately, a certain “watering can funding” could not be avoided, and needy people who are not needy would also be relieved, the chairmen of the commission announced on Monday. These are the “business wise man” Veronika Grimm, the President of the BDI Industry Association, Siegfried Russwurm, and the Chairman of the Chemical Union IG BCE, Michael Vassiliadis.
The task was to initiate the first relief for households and commercial consumers by the end of the year at the latest, which is why the publication of the interim report was brought forward to today, Vassiliadis said after the 35-hour meeting, which only took place on Monday morning at around half past six end went. In addition to speed, the aim was to protect households and the economy effectively and permanently against being overwhelmed by excessive gas prices and at the same time provide incentives to save gas. However, I rub the latter goal with the others. In addition, it is important to consider Germany’s transformation towards more climate protection and not to neglect the integration of all relief steps into a European context.
It starts in December
These further thoughts are to be included in a final report with additional recommendations, which the commission intends to present by the end of October. In the short term, however, it is a matter of quickly getting the first relief on the way. The proposals, which the Commission handed over to the government in the Chancellery on Monday morning, differ in their chronological order and in their focus on private and industrial customers.
The first group includes private customers and smaller commercial gas consumers, the second larger industrial consumers. As early as December, the first group should benefit from the fact that their advance payments to the gas supplier will be completely covered by the state. The consumption on which the deduction from September of this year is based serves as an orientation for the gas suppliers and the housing administrations or landlords who have to implement these reliefs. For this purpose, around 5 billion euros are planned from the “defense shield” against high energy prices recently announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP). This one-off relief should be sufficient for consumers until spring, we are talking about March or April.
In the cold months of January and February, they have to pay the high gas prices themselves – and at best save a lot of gas. The full assumption of costs in December was “pragmatic” and administratively much easier than partial assumptions throughout the winter, Grimm said. She conceded that customers with low tariffs also benefit from this, but of course their discounts are also lower, which the public sector then takes over.
