The reduced rate will apply from October 1, but the measure is far from being unanimous.
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It is a relief for the German government, entangled in an increasingly unpopular energy crisis. The European Commission has accepted Germany’s request to temporarily lower its value added tax rate (VAT) on gas. This will pass, from 1 er October and until March 31, 2024, at the reduced rate of 7 %, against 19 % currently, announced Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Thursday, August 18. This should make it possible to relieve pressure on consumers, while the authorities have just adopted a controversial tax to support gas distributors. This is also affected by the reduced VAT rate.
“Equity is decisive for the country to hold together in this crisis,” said the chancellor at a press conference on Thursday afternoon. For Mr. Scholz, the stake was in size: the announcement, Monday, August 15, of the creation of a new gas tax of 2.419 cents per kilowatt hour from the 1 er provoked hostile reactions in the population and economic circles. This new sample is supposed to financially help import groups, forced to buy fossil gas on the market at gold in order to replace that not delivered by Russia. Linked by long -term contracts at fixed prices with their customers, these companies risked the short -term liquidity failure. The Uniper group, the first importer of Russian gas across the Rhine, announced, Wednesday, August 17, an abyssal loss of 12 billion euros in the first half.
If this tax has the double advantage of not digging the state budget and leaving the price signal intact – making it possible to encourage the drop in consumption – it creates a new burden for households and companies, already struggling with record inflation. The drop in gas VAT should overcome the new tax, Olaf Scholz announced. Provided that companies have the decline on consumers, which the Chancellor has committed to enforce. He also announced that a new package of household aid would be announced in the coming days. “You’ll Never Walk Alone [” You will not be delivered to yourself “], he said, the mantra he has been using for a few months.
” this n ‘ is not a good instrument “
If this correction is welcome, it is not free from criticism from economists. “The drop in VAT dilutes the desired effect,” said Stefan Kooths, vice-president of the Kiel Economic Institute on Thursday afternoon. To save gas, the price increase is a major signal. Start the increase for consumers as a whole, because they fear the socio-economic consequences. They thus take the risk of missing the objectives for reducing consumption which would be essential for the safety of supplies of priority sectors. ”
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