The amount of the additional fee that consumers will have to pay for natural gas in Germany from October it reaches 2.419 cents per kilowatt-hour. Experts calculated it in the range from 1.5 to 5 cents per kilowatt-hour, so in the end it “closed” somewhere in the middle.

This is an emergency levy that essentially supports natural gas importers such as Uniper, which is already on state support, to pay for very expensive imported natural gas without any problems.

The ultimate goal is to prevent critical energy companies from going bankrupt next winter. As German broadcaster DLF notes, in practice, anyone who consumes, say, 10,000 kilowatt-hours of natural gas per year will have to pay an additional 240 euros due to an additional fee, plus possibly 19% VAT.

Lindner’s letter to the Commission on VAT on gas collection

The emergency levy will be added to Germany’s already higher electricity rates, and Economy and Energy Minister Robert Hambeck is announcing new benefits for hardest-hit citizens, for example. by extending housing and heating allowances. For R. Gambek, as he pointed out from Berlin, it is important that Germany meets this crisis with a “democratic consensus” on the basis of “socio-political conditions.”

It is worth noting that, according to the calculations of the German Hans Beckler Institute close to the German trade unions, a special payment for natural gas could lead to an increase in inflation up to 2 percentage points. In July, inflation fluctuated at 7.5%, so, according to the German Institute, it could rise to 9%.

At the same time, to avoid exactly this scenario, according to Reuters, Liberal Finance Minister Christian Lindner sent a letter to the Commission requesting either a full exemption for EU member states from VAT on natural gas prices, or an exception only for Germany and specifically to pay VAT on the new natural gas emergency tax.

Producer price index decline

However, the week started on a good note. According to the latest news from Statistics Germany, the key producer/wholesale price index, which is an important indicator of inflation dynamics, recorded a decrease of 0.4% in July compared to June 2022. This is indeed the first time since October. 2020, when this particular indicator recorded a decline, which caused moderate optimism among experts.

The first estimate is that this decline is due to lower prices for selected commodities such as cereals, seeds, animal feed, raw tobacco, as well as raw metals and semi-finished products, with a corresponding decline in prices also recorded in the waste trade.

However, it should be noted that compared to July 2021, the key producer price index increased by 19.5% as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising energy and fuel prices.

Source: DV