Monday is the day of truth for millions of gas customers in Germany. Then the amount of the gas surcharge to save systemically important gas importers should be announced. Consumers have to reckon with considerable additional costs.
The new state levy will only account for a part of the cost increases – it comes practically on top of it. Apart from that, the price increases that gas suppliers demand from their customers differ from company to company. The time is also variable here. The surcharge, on the other hand, will come for all gas customers from autumn, but many questions are still open. An overview of the biggest problems:
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The exact amount of the levy is calculated by the so-called market area manager Trading Hub Europe, a joint venture of the gas transmission system operators. It should be announced on Monday. The Ministry of Economics recently assumed a range of 1.5 to 5 cents per kilowatt hour. All gas consumers, companies and private households, have to pay the surcharge. However, many market experts believe that this amount is too low.
The comparison portal Verivox calculated additional costs of between 89 and 298 euros for this range for a single household with an annual consumption of 5000 kilowatt hours. A typical couple household would be charged between 214 and 714 euros, a family in a single-family home (consumption of 20,000 kilowatt hours) with 357 to 1190 euros. This includes VAT. Competitor Check 24 comes up with the same estimates.
In addition, there are market-driven, sometimes drastic price increases that are gradually reaching customers. Many people are affected because around half of all apartments in Germany are heated with gas. RWE customers are also lucky. Because the company makes a lot of money with other business areas, it has announced that it will not levy the levy. The energy company Shell also does not want to claim any money from the levy, as the group announced on Sunday.
The levy will apply from the beginning of October – but it will not be visible immediately on the invoices, but with a little delay, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. For reasons of consumer protection, there are notice periods in the Energy Industry Act of four to six weeks that must be observed. Therefore, the surcharge will probably be shown on the invoices for the first time in November or December. However, the Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) expects that some suppliers will bill their customers for the surcharge from October 1st.
According to the ministry, the surcharge is billed monthly and can be adjusted every three months. Should Russia fully meet its contractually guaranteed quantities again, the price adjustment will be set to zero. The amount of the levy therefore depends essentially on the volume and price of the gas procured as a replacement and on demand. The higher the compensation for the importers, the higher the surcharge.
Gas importers have delivery obligations to their customers, especially to municipal utilities. The importers can only meet these delivery obligations by replacing the lost quantities from Russia by purchasing much more expensive quantities on the short-term market. So far, these additional costs cannot be passed on. The result: significant losses have been incurred by importers, and the continued existence of the company can be jeopardized. If large gas buyers went bankrupt because of this, Germany’s entire energy supply would be at risk. That is why the federal government has agreed on a rescue package worth billions with the utility Uniper.
At the same time, the federal government also decided to apply the levy to all gas customers. The alternative would have been to finance the financial compensation for the importers through the state budget. However, this would be associated with “considerable burdens” on the budget, according to the regulation. Politically, the federal government is also sending a price signal: Saving on gas is also financially worthwhile.
The core are compensation payments to the gas importers. They should be sufficient to prevent bankruptcies, it is said. The levy is intended to prevent “further massive price increases due to the loss of gas importers that are important for the market due to insolvency”.
The financial compensation for affected gas importers is limited in time to the fulfillment of contractual delivery obligations from October 1, 2022 to April 1, 2024. According to the ministry, the affected gas importers will bear all costs for the replacement procurement alone until October. After that, they bear 10 percent of the costs permanently themselves.
There is a complex formula for calculating the allocation, which, among other things, takes into account the difference between the contractually agreed and the current purchase price. The amount of the additional costs must be certified by auditors. According to the ministry, the compensation will be made by the gas suppliers, who will usually pass on the costs to their customers.
One problem is how to deal with customers with fixed contracts. So far, the ministry has only said that this will be checked. In a letter to Habeck, the BDEW and the association of municipal companies warned that a price adjustment for customers with contracts without the possibility of adjustment could not be enforced until October 1st. This affects an average of around 25 percent of household customers and small businesses, and even significantly more for some suppliers.
“The result would be that the companies would have to pay the levy to the market area manager, but would not be reimbursed immediately by the end consumers,” the letter says. In the case of fixed price contracts and in the electricity and district heating supply generated from gas, there is a risk of a total failure if the surcharge cannot be contractually passed on. “This creates significant liquidity problems for the energy suppliers, which can also lead to insolvency due to the already tense financial situation.”
But consumer advocates give customers little hope. Consumers who have a price guarantee in their contracts and hope to be spared are wrong, warns Udo Sieverding, energy expert at the North Rhine-Westphalia consumer advice center. Because this guarantee does not protect against government levies or taxes. “Everyone has to pay,” says the consumer advocate.
As of now, VAT is due on the state gas levy – so the state also earns. Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and Habeck want to prevent this, but it is not easy legally. According to the Ministry of Finance, such exceptions are not provided for in European law. Lindner had promised that he would exhaust all legal and political options to avert an additional burden. Saarland Prime Minister Anke Rehlinger proposed passing on VAT revenue from the gas levy to poorer households.
In addition to the procurement levy, there will also be a gas storage levy in the fall. This is intended to reimburse Trading Hub Europe for the costs it incurs to ensure security of supply, i.e. for the purchase of gas. However, the Ministry of Economic Affairs does not assume that this levy will reach a “relevant size”.
Their amount must be announced by August 20 at the latest. It should also be billed from October 1st. The consulting company Enervis in Berlin assumes a minimum level of 1.65 euros per megawatt hour (0.165 cents per kWh). “Depending on the market situation, this value could also multiply,” Enervis gas market expert Sebastian Gulbis told the Tagesspiegel.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) confirmed on Thursday that the government would not leave the citizens alone. At the beginning of next year there should be a significant increase in housing benefit, and a permanent heating cost subsidy for low-income households is also planned.
