Erfurt (dpa/th) – Thuringia supports plans to temporarily tax special profits from oil companies due to price jumps as a result of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. “Thuringia will join a corresponding application from Bremen in the Bundesrat,” said Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) of the German Press Agency in Erfurt. The state will thus become a co-applicant on this issue in the state chamber.
Ramelow pointed out that some energy companies have reported “the highest quarterly profits of all time” due to extreme price jumps since the beginning of the war. “That is unacceptable,” said Ramelow. He is currently President of the Federal Council.
The prime ministers of the federal states agreed on Thursday to react to the so-called excess profits at energy companies. Stronger government action is needed, Ramelow affirmed.
The federal states have asked the federal government to “take regulatory measures to prevent further speculation in oil, gas and electricity,” said Berlin’s governing mayor Franziska Giffey (SPD) as vice-chair of the Prime Ministers’ Conference. Price increases of the past weeks and months would have to be checked under antitrust law.
Bremen has announced that it will submit an application to the Bundesrat on June 10 with the aim of imposing a temporary tax on excess profits made by mineral companies as a result of price jumps.
