That would not help those who needed it most. “We have to relieve the pressure well into the middle, but not blindly with the watering can. In terms of regulatory policy, Ludwig Erhard would turn in his grave,” Brantner told the Handelsblatt.
Baden-Württemberg’s Finance Minister Danyal Bayaz (Greens) described the tank discount on Twitter as “expensive, not very accurate, bureaucratic and behaviorally counterproductive”.
Schleswig-Holstein’s Environment Minister Jan Philipp Albrecht (Greens) also warned of the negative effects of the Lindner proposal. “A tank discount hits all those who don’t have their own car but are dependent on fossil fuels for heating, at least as badly,” wrote Albrecht on Twitter. “They pay twice as much for the subsidy on fuel consumption: with their taxes and with the energy prices that are fueled as a result.”
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Since the start of the Ukraine war around two and a half weeks ago, fuel prices have skyrocketed to well over two euros per liter. Lindner plans for the tank discount with funds from the budget. A discount of ten cents per liter of diesel and petrol would cost the state 550 million euros per month, he said. “It will have to be more than ten cents and more than a month if I have my way.”
The billing would be done via the gas station operator or mineral oil company, explained the minister. The help would be temporary, but would come quickly and without much bureaucracy. At the same time, Lindner emphasized that it was only a proposal and not yet a government decision.
The tax expert Jens Boysen-Hogrefe from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) estimated the costs to be significantly higher. According to his calculations, a discount of 20 cents per liter would result in a burden for the state of around ten to 13 billion euros per year. At 30 cents per liter it would be 15 to 19 billion euros.
The Federal Minister of Finance has met with a lot of opposition for his fuel discount proposal.
(Photo: Reuters)
The chairman of the FDP parliamentary group, Christian Dürr, stated that the aim of the tank discount was to get the price of petrol in Germany below two euros again. This is what commuters and freight forwarders need now so that the supply chains are not interrupted in the end, Dürr told the RTL/N-TV broadcasters. “We are in a crisis situation and the state must act quickly.”
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) praised the fact that the proposal conforms with European law and can therefore be implemented quickly. A rebate “ensures that everything ends up in the pockets of the people instead of the oil multinationals one-for-one,” he explained on Twitter.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) reacted cautiously to the discount idea. His criteria are not yet shown in the Lindner proposal, Habeck said on Sunday evening on ARD. The Vice Chancellor emphasized that further relief for citizens would always have to take all forms of energy into account, be combined with efficiency measures and provide an incentive to use less energy.
From the point of view of the deputy head of the SPD and deputy prime minister of the Saarland, Anke Rehlinger, the tank discount must become an “energy price protective shield”. “Heating costs are also pushing,” she wrote on Twitter.
The tank discount is therefore “not yet perfect”. She is counting on Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to put together a “clever package” from Lindner’s advance. “It should now be quick and relieve many,” warned the SPD politician.
The SPD left spoke out in favor of comprehensive relief for small and medium-income earners and companies. “This can be achieved, for example, by introducing a gas and heating price cap and increasing the heating cost subsidy,” said the co-chairman of the Democratic Left Forum in the SPD (DL21), Sebastian Roloff, the Handelsblatt. “To cushion fuel prices, one could talk about a temporary reduction in VAT if it is guaranteed that it will be passed on to consumers,” added the member of the Bundestag.
The CDU transport politician Christoph Ploß criticized the Lindner proposal. In his opinion, this only leads to paperwork. “Too much bureaucracy, doesn’t really relieve the burden,” said Ploß on “Bild Live”.
At the same time, Ploß accused the federal government of acting in a completely uncoordinated manner. “One hand of the government doesn’t know what the other is doing at the moment. There is no vote. It takes, it takes, it takes,” he said. This is “fatal”. “Drivers now need a solution.”
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The deputy head of the Union parliamentary group, Jens Spahn, outlined what the solution could look like from the CDU perspective. “It has to be at least 40 cents per liter and it has to be unbureaucratic,” said Spahn in the ARD “Morgenmagazin”.
The Union parliamentary group manager Thorsten Frei (CDU) added: How always a fuel price brake is designed, whether tax reduction or discount model, is ultimately a technical question.
The Union is willing to talk “about all possible models,” Frei said on Deutschlandfunk. It is crucial that citizens and businesses are relieved at the petrol pump.
Petrol station association rejects discount idea
The central association of the petrol station trade (ZTG) strictly opposed the Lindner proposal. “Basically, we welcome every effort to lower fuel prices, but we think a tank discount granted at the gas station is the wrong way,” said ZTG Managing Director Jürgen Ziegner to the Handelsblatt. “That would indeed be a highly bureaucratic measure, all the more so if it actually meant that every gas station also had to submit the respective tank receipts to the tax office.”
Ziegner also pointed out that independent petrol station operators and medium-sized petroleum dealers with their own network of petrol stations in particular could not afford the pre-financing associated with a tank discount. The apparently targeted 20-cent discount is a multiple of their fuel margin. “In any case, they are already suffering in many cases from the fact that the credit financiers are reducing their payment terms, since the credit lines are being reached or exceeded due to the enormously increased purchase prices.”
The calculation is simple, according to Ziegner: A gas station with 300,000 liters of fuel sales per month would pre-finance 60,000 euros after four weeks. That is “completely impossible”.
The ZTG is therefore calling for the energy tax for petrol and diesel to be reduced as quickly as possible for six months to the minimum rates permitted under EU law of 36 cents for petrol and 33 cents for diesel and for the CO2 tax to be suspended for the same period.
“Including VAT, that would be a relief for consumers of 44 cents for petrol and 28 cents for diesel, without the state losing revenue to the same extent,” explained Ziegner. Because the relief also leads to a decline in tank tourism in neighboring countries. “The tax revenue from refueling repatriated tank tourists would compensate for the energy tax cut to a considerable extent.”
Consumer advocates warn of “bureaucratic monsters”
The Federal Consumer Association (VZBV) also rejects a tank discount. “A tank discount that is processed via vouchers at the gas stations sounds like a bureaucracy monster,” said the head of the Mobility and Travel team at VZBV, Marion Jungbluth, the Handelsblatt. “We need targeted tools that will appeal to people on a tight budget who depend on cars.”
Jungbluth called for the rapid payment of the climate money agreed in the traffic light coalition agreement to private households. In this context, the federal government should “check whether it is possible to quickly pay out targeted climate money for low incomes”.
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