High gas prices weigh on consumers.
(Photo: dpa)
True to the motto “If you don’t know what to do anymore, set up a working group”, the Federal Government set up the Gas and Heat Expert Commission. As far as the relief for private households is concerned, a bureaucratic monster has emerged with many points still unresolved.
The concept of relieving consumers not by intervening in the price mechanism but by means of transfer payments is correct. In this way, incentives to save are retained and financial overload due to excessive energy expenditure is avoided.
>> Read here: How relief from the gas price brake should be taxed
The complexity arises from the fact that the Commission limits itself to relieving gas consumers. It has thus adhered to the mandate of the federal government to develop proposals for overcoming the gas price crisis.
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Therefore, the concept of the energy price flat rate, which the federal government implemented in April as part of the “Relief Package 2”, is left out. This is unfortunate, since the flat-rate energy price has clear advantages.
Flat rate should be higher
While it is still unclear with the gas price brake whether an upper limit can be set that prevents the villa owner with a pool from receiving a much higher subsidy than the single person in a 40 square meter apartment, there is a fixed amount for the energy price flat rate per person.
Peter Bofinger is a professor of economics at the University of Würzburg and was a member of the Advisory Council.
As in the relief package, this can be combined with a child bonus. Of course, a lump sum that has a similar relief effect as the gas price brake would have to be much higher than the 300 euros previously granted.
From the point of view of distribution, the general tax liability for the flat-rate energy price is convincing. On the other hand, the tax liability envisaged for the gas price brake only leads to a sudden increase in the burden at this limit for incomes of more than 75,000 euros, and there is no differentiation between incomes below the limit. The emergency aid in December 2022 should even remain completely tax-free.
While the implementation of the gas price brake is associated with a multitude of problems for suppliers and landlords, there have been no significant implementation problems with the energy price flat rate.
The only possible disadvantage of the flat-rate energy price compared to the gas price brake is that it would relieve not only gas consumers, but all consumers in general. Households with oil heating would thus benefit just as much as those with gas heating, although the price of heating oil has not risen quite as much as the price of gas.
Even if the government has set up a commission just for gas prices, it should not put aside unchecked a more comprehensive and easier-to-implement solution that could also be used for electricity prices.
More: What you need to know about the gas and electricity price brake