The energy suppliers are dealing differently with the short-term overturned gas surcharge. Some assure you not to raise them. Others want to keep the increased deductions and refund the overpaid in the annual statement.
Schwerin (dpa/mv) – The Mecklenburg-Western Pomeranian consumer advice center is calling on the energy suppliers to pass on the cancellation of the gas levy to consumers as quickly as possible. “It should be possible by November at the latest,” said energy expert Arian Freytag of the German Press Agency. If the deductions due to the surcharge were increased on October 1st and the overpayment was only reimbursed in the annual statement, this would be an interest-free loan from customers to their suppliers.
In the past few weeks, suppliers have informed their customers that from October 1st gas surcharges of around 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour will have to be paid. The federal government wanted to support gas importers in distress. At the end of September, however, she overturned the levy. The letters with the tariff adjustments were long gone. Utilities have different plans on whether to remove the surcharge from their prices immediately or refund the money later.
Stadtwerke Stralsund, for example, assured that it would not collect the gas surcharge from October 1st. The effort for each new price calculation and the necessary communication means about 100 hours of additional work, reported the manager André Huysmann. Further costs would arise from mailing letters and digital and printed publications.
At Stadtwerke Neubrandenburg, the deductions were increased on October 1st. There will be no further adjustment, because all customers received their annual consumption bill for 2022 in January, a spokeswoman said. “It takes into account all the relief that has been legally fixed up to that point.” On October 1st, VAT on gas will also drop from 19 to 7 percent.
The Elbe supply company in Boizenburg (Ludwigslust-Parchim district) said that the costs of the gas levy would be charged retrospectively “with the next possible price adjustment”.
The consumer advice center recommended gas customers to write down their meter readings. “Then you can check what the supplier charges,” said Freytag. Stadtwerke Ludwigslust-Grabow asked their gas customers in a letter last week to communicate the meter reading of October 1st. Otherwise, the consumption would have to be determined on the basis of a percentage breakdown.
Customers are unsettled by the back and forth of politics. The service center of Stadtwerke Stralsund recorded a 25 percent increase in demand in September, as Huysmann reported. “The calls from our customers are characterized by uncertainties and ambiguities, both about the basic and replacement supply and about the reduction in VAT and the elimination of the gas levy.”
Continuity is also desired at the Elbe utility company. “The regular effort to include, understand and implement new legal requirements has been enormous since the middle of this year and ties up workers unnecessarily,” it said. “For our customers, we want a relief package from a single source that gives us enough time to implement it and gives our customers security at least over the winter.”
