Senior Social Democrat urges German government to postpone gas VAT increase

• The vice president of the parliamentary group of the Social Democrats (SPD) in Germany opposes the government’s plan to increase the VAT on natural gas.
• The tax was temporarily lowered in 2022 to counter gas price hikes related to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
• The government plans to reverse the temporary price reduction by the end of the year, three months earlier than planned.
• Matthias Miersch suggests keeping the lower VAT rate for heat until April next year to prevent upheavals in society.
• The government capped electricity and gas prices under the energy “price brakes” and cut the VAT for natural gas last year to protect consumers from rising costs.
• The government is in talks with the EU to extend the “price brakes” until the end of the heating season in April as an “insurance against rising prices.”
• The finance ministry (BMF) stated that the natural gas VAT reduction was planned as a short-term relief measure.

Source: cleanenergywire.org

Note that this post was (partially) written with the help of AI. It is always useful to review the original source material, and where needed to obtain (local) advice from a specialist.

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