Erfurt (dpa/th) – The CDU parliamentary group in the Thuringian state parliament is calling on the traffic light coalition to quickly improve the expert proposals to cushion the high gas prices. “It’s actually a joke when you see that the gas price cap shouldn’t take effect until March,” said CDU parliamentary group leader Mario Voigt on Tuesday in Erfurt. “Every citizen and every small and medium-sized craft entrepreneur must feel fooled by the traffic lights.” The CDU parliamentary group called for the gas price brake to take effect by January 1 at the latest.
The package will be “delivered particularly on the back of the East,” Voigt complained. In particular, the local medium-sized structure would suffer from the plans. “We are now almost half a year away from March 1st, when the gas price cap takes effect. The one-off payment in December doesn’t help either,” said Voigt.
The commission of experts set up by the federal government has proposed a one-off payment in December for private gas customers and small companies based on the advance payment in September. The actual price brake should come in January for industrial companies and for private households and small companies from March if possible, or April at the latest. For the latter, there should be a basic quota of 12 cents per kilowatt hour – for 80 percent of the consumption on which the down payment from September is based. Above this quantity, the contractually agreed working price shall apply. On Friday, a special session in the state parliament will deal with help in the energy crisis. The CDU, on whose votes Red-Red-Green depends, demanded, among other things, an economic security fund of up to 400 million euros. There should also be an “extra craftsman subsidy program”, said Voigt. The state government had previously spoken of being able to imagine providing a fund with 200 million euros.
