Germany, the government’s Christmas gift against expensive energy: bills paid in December, then discounts for businesses and families

BERLIN – A two-stage program to counter the expensive-bills: the 200 billion euro maxi plan announced by the Scholz government, which has infuriated many European partners and the EU Commission, is starting to take shape. After thirty-five hours of consultations, the Gaspreiskommission, the Gas Price Commission, presented his proposals to the government. Who will have to decide whether to adopt them or not.

The head of the IG-BCE chemistry and energy union Michael Vissialidis, member of the Commission, explained in a press conference that “what we do here is not against Europe but for Germany in Europe”. For aid, the Commission expects expenditure of € 96 billion. And the head of the BDI industrial association, Siegfried Russwurm, also a member of the Commission, confirmed fears that Germany was sinking into a recession and stressed that “an existential threat to industry is also to security. and the welfare state “.

In December, bill paid by the state

If the government accepts the Commission’s suggestions, five billion euros will have to be made available by the state for meanwhile, to pay, one-off, the gas bills to households and businesses for the month of December. No reductions are foreseen for January and February, what the Germans call a “gas price cap” would start in March.

The German-style gas price cap

From March 2023 to April 2024 the state should guarantee a discounted price for 80% of household consumption and 70% of that of businesses. Up to that threshold, the Germans will pay 12 cents (households) or 9 cents (businesses) for gas, the rest will be covered by the state. Commission member Veronika Grimm explained the sense of the measure: “For 80% of consumption the price will be cut to 12 cents, the rest will be paid by the state. That is the price of gas we expect in the future, not we think it will go back to 7 cents. For companies it will be 9 cents and the threshold of 70% of consumption “. And Vassiliadis underlined that the sense of not covering all the needs “is to guarantee an incentive to save gas consumption. The situation remains tense despite the fact that the reserves are almost full”.

The benefits for families

According to a calculation by Verivox, currently a family that consumes 20 thousand kWh of gas would pay 4,108 euros per year at current market prices. With the reduction of 80% of consumption, the bill would drop to 2,742 euros, with a saving of 1,366 euros per year. With a consumption of around 5,000 kWh the “discount” would be 342 euros, in the case of 12,000 kWh around 820 euros.