WThat’s why it’s simple, even if it can be complicated: This seems to be the leitmotif when it comes to designing the €200 billion “defense shield” against high energy prices. What was announced at the end of September as a quick and uncomplicated relief is developing into a bureaucratic monster that hardly anyone understands – least of all those who are supposed to be relieved.
The Gas Commission’s final report presented on Monday makes this clear once again. Take one twelfth of the annual consumption forecast on which the advance payment in September 2022 is based, multiply this by the kilowatt hour price in December 2022 and add one twelfth of the gross annual basic price as of September: This is what the supposedly unbureaucratic emergency aid for gas customers looks like.
The fact that the federal government has already launched a draft law with a slightly different formula after the commission’s interim report makes things even more complicated. Who has to transfer what to whom and when, who has to inform whom and when: This emergency aid will cost gas suppliers, property management companies as well as apartment owners and tenants a lot of nerves.
The pitfalls of the gas price brake planned for the coming year are also becoming increasingly obvious. Households that consume a lot of energy benefit more from it than those with low consumption. In fact, that is exactly what should be avoided. Households whose heating costs are paid for by the job center have little incentive to save energy. Again hectically corrected, as in the summer with the messed up gas levy.
It would have been easier if the federal government had paid every citizen a one-time payment, which was lower the higher the income of a household. Already at the beginning of the corona pandemic, there were complaints that the tax offices were not technically able to make such transfers. The fact that nothing has changed two and a half years later does not reflect well on the administration. Why so complicated when it could be simpler?