From October 2022, the surcharge for all gas consumers in Germany will be 2,419 US cents per kilowatt hour, according to German gas network operator Trading Hub Europe on Monday, August 15.

Tariffs will increase for both households and industry, Reuters said. An average family of four with a consumption of 20,000 kilowatt-hours will have to pay about 488 euros more per year for gas, excluding taxes, writes the dpa agency.

Trading Hub Europe explains the introduction of the surcharge by federal government decree of 9 August, according to which gas importers directly affected by a significant reduction in imports are entitled to financial compensation for part of the costs. Price increases lead to the fact that most of your financial burden will be transferred to the consumer.

Consumers offset up to 90 percent of gas price increases

The German government decided to introduce an additional tax for gas in early August to help importers deal with rising prices due to reduced supply from Russia. The measure aims to distribute the additional costs among all consumers. The announced increase of 2.419 cents per kilowatt-hour means consumers will have to pay up to 90 percent of the additional costs, Reuters points out.

The price increase has been approved for the period October 2022 to April 2024. To ease the burden on citizens, the ruling coalition and opposition are discussing a number of measures, including paying state subsidies and tax refunds, writes to Reuters.

Energy companies support the introduction of a surcharge

In early July, the German energy company and the biggest gas importer, Uniper, asked the German authorities for help in stabilizing operations after the reduction in Russian gas supplies. Since June, Uniper has only received 40% of its contracted gas volumes from Russia, forcing it to buy the missing volumes from other suppliers at significantly higher prices.

Energy group RWE, for its part, has so far refused to take a surcharge for the gas, which consumers will start paying from October, Markus Krebber, director of RWE, said in an interview with Die Zeit. According to him, this decision is due to the company’s financial stability. Krebber, however, supported the introduction of the surcharge. “Of course, this gives an incentive to keep saving gas due to rising prices,” he said.