Payments to private consumers account for the largest share of the costs.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The federal government also wants to send the immediate payments for gas customers in December to nursing homes, rehabilitation clinics, state-recognized or non-profit educational and scientific institutions and workshops for people with disabilities. This emerges from the cabinet draft for the law on the immediate payment, which is available to the Handelsblatt and which is to be decided on Wednesday.
The institutions mentioned should receive the aid regardless of their gas consumption. In other cases, there is only an entitlement if consumption is less than 1.5 million kilowatt hours per year.
Overall, according to the cabinet bill, the federal government expects expenditure of 8.9 billion euros for the December immediate payment, which is to be borne by the Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF). Payments to private consumers make up the largest proportion of this. There are around 20 million households with a gas connection in Germany.
In contrast to the original draft law, the federal government has made adjustments when calculating the amount of the December surcharge. The amount should now be one-twelfth of the annual consumption forecast in September, multiplied by the personal energy price, i.e. the price in the consumer’s contract as of December 1st.
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Originally, the government had planned to use actual consumption rather than the forecast. Also, December, not September, should be used for this. This had caused criticism because it would have given an incentive to increase gas consumption. But now the federal government is following the advice of the commission of experts it has convened.
According to the cabinet draft, the amount of the relief should be based on “typical annual consumption” for consumers who only signed a gas contract after September. Consumers who do not receive a bill from their gas supplier in December, which could be used to settle the immediate surcharge, either do not have to pay the January discount or receive the immediate surcharge with the January bill.
In the case of long-distance heating consumers, the utility company is free to credit the immediate surcharge in the December bill or simply waive the December deduction.
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