Energy price crisis: relief: emergency aid for gas customers launched

Millions of gas customers should be relieved of the increased prices with a one-off payment.

Energy price crisis: relief: emergency aid for gas customers launched

Millions of gas customers should be relieved of the increased prices with a one-off payment. Specifically, they are to be released from their advance payments for the month of December. Tenants should benefit from this in the next annual heating bill. A draft by the Ministry of Economic Affairs for the billions in "emergency aid" is now being discussed internally in the federal government. The cabinet should decide on this next week, after which it will go to parliament.

Why the emergency aid should come

The emergency aid is intended to compensate for the increased energy bills and the time until the planned introduction of the gas price brake next spring, according to a paper by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. As a first step, proposals from the gas expert commission set up by the government should be implemented.

Even if wholesale prices have recently fallen, future developments remain uncertain, the paper says. Private consumers and companies would have to continue to expect and plan for prices for gas and district heating that would be many times higher. The price increase has considerable "social explosive power". Far into the middle of society there is a risk of price developments that will bring these households to the brink of their financial ability or could overwhelm them financially.

Overall, the relief should be in the higher single-digit billions. This is financed from the so-called defense shield of up to 200 billion euros, with which the federal government wants to cushion the consequences of high energy prices.

How emergency aid should work

It is planned that so-called final consumers of pipeline-bound natural gas and heat customers will be exempted from the December down payment. According to the draft, they are entitled to a credit from their natural gas supplier. This applies, for example, to the sole owner of a single house who gets a gas bill from their gas supplier, but also to small and medium-sized companies. The suppliers are said to have a "reimbursement or advance payment claim" against the state.

There is a formula for the relief: In the case of natural gas, it should correspond to the product of one twelfth of annual consumption and the price agreed for December 2022, supplemented by a proportionate relief for other price elements. This is to ensure that the sometimes very different and sometimes considerable price increases at the end of the year are taken into account in favor of the end consumer. This differs from the proposals of the expert commission, which envisaged a one-off payment based on consumption, on which the advance payment from September 2022 was based.

In the case of district heating, the relief should correspond to the amount of the September bill plus a flat-rate adjustment factor, which should reflect the price increases in the period up to December.

For companies and large industrial customers with an annual consumption of more than 1.5 million kilowatt hours - according to the recommendations of the expert commission - the gas price brake should take effect as early as January. This early starting point is intended to replace a one-off payment. However, there are still state aid negotiations with the EU Commission on the gas price brake for industry.

What is planned for tenants and landlords

For tenants and landlords, there should be a separate regulation on the transfer of the relief. Many landlords have not yet adjusted the monthly advance payment to the increased gas and energy prices, it said. Many tenants therefore continue to pay comparatively moderate discounts, based on the prices and consumption of the previous year. They would receive the higher prices as part of the heating bill for 2022, which will be drawn up in the coming year - then there is a risk of sharp increases.

Therefore, the now planned relief should be passed on from the landlord to the tenant with the next annual heating bill. Landlords should be obliged to inform tenants of the estimated amount of the credit as early as December.

For homeowners' associations, regulations should apply in the same way as the relationship between landlords and tenants: the community of homeowners should pass on the relief to the homeowners in the course of the annual statement. If the condominium is rented, landlords should pass on the relief received to the tenants.

What the energy industry says

The industry welcomed the draft in principle, but called for improvements. The general manager of the municipal utility association VKU, Ingbert Liebing, said on Thursday that the rules for bearing and reimbursement of costs had to be adjusted. It is elementary that municipal utilities and energy suppliers would be reimbursed by the federal government on December 1 on time for several billion euros for the deduction issued for December. The federal government must be obliged to do this.

The head of the Federal Association of Energy and Water Management, Kerstin Andreae, said that it was crucial that the reimbursement claim had to be paid out by the government agency in November. This has not yet been sufficiently ensured.

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