With the help of consumers, gas traders are to be saved from bankruptcy. The argument: A collapse of the energy market would result in even higher prices. However, some companies that benefit from the gas surcharge are suspecting that they don’t need it at all.
With a surcharge, gas consumers are supposed to save importers threatened with bankruptcy. In this way, 34 billion euros should come together. The Federal Ministry of Economics announced that this was the requirement reported by all energy suppliers. Around a dozen providers have raised their hands. But there are also some who benefit from high energy prices. Was that intentional?
In the ordinance on the gas levy, the ministry assumes a gloomy situation. Since Russia has been supplying significantly less gas to the West than agreed, local importers have been suffering “considerable losses”. These they could not long bear; there is a risk of “collapse” of companies. The most prominent example of this is the Düsseldorf-based energy giant Uniper. A wave of bankruptcies of gas companies would not help anyone, so the argument goes. On the contrary, a collapse of the German energy market would result in even higher gas prices because even less ordered gas would arrive in Germany.
As a result, all gas consumers in Germany are to pay a good 2.4 cents more per kilowatt hour from October. For a household with a single-family house and an annual consumption of 20,000 kilowatt hours, the additional costs due to the gas surcharge amount to around 484 euros per year. Importers should receive compensation “to prevent bankruptcies,” says the regulation. The process should “but not at the same time lead to securing profits at the expense of consumers”.
Criticism – and concern about possible free riders – is now stirring, because among the applicants are power plant operators, oil companies or gas traders who have recently made great money from the increased electricity, fuel and gas prices. The head of the Federal Association of Consumers, Ramona Pop, has asked for a thorough examination of the applications. Claims would have to be credibly justified with an otherwise impending insolvency.
A look at the applicants’ figures shows that the companies that are supposed to receive the most money from the levy are actually in trouble at the moment.
