Bruno Hollnagel
Electricity Tax Law
German Bundestag, March 14, 2019, Plenarprotokoll 19/86, p. 10209
[Bruno Hollnagel is an
Alternative für Deutschland Bundestag member from the northern German state of
Schleswig-Holstein. He is an investment manager and author and is currently a
member of the Bundestag finance committee. The electricity tax law referred to,
besides increasing the price of electricity, also lowered the cost of
employment by relieving employers of some of the social welfare contributions
made on behalf of their employees.]
Honorable President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen.
20 years ago, the red-green government issued the electricity tax
law [Stromsteuergesetz]. The intention
was to make electricity more expensive and work cheaper. On the 20th
anniversary, I might heartily congratulate you: you have had complete success.
Work has become so cheap that many cannot live thereon and electricity has
become so expensive that 344,000 households can no longer pay for it. To them,
the electricity has been shut off. Moreover in that regard, there are 6.6
million threatened with electricity curtailment. Thanks to the Green ideology,
the price of electricity during the past 20 years has nearly doubled with a 174
percent increase. Germany in this regard has taken a unique leadership in
Europe. There must be an end to this.
Bernhard Daldrup
(SPD): But that has nothing to do with the issue!
An additional idea of the electricity tax was that no one should
be taxed who produced electricity from renewable energy for his own
requirements. This was the practice for 20 years. Yet now, thanks to the EU,
shall it be otherwise. How so? By means of new bureaucratic duties in the form
of exemption proposals to be submitted yearly. The state contributes to
production costs through enlarged administrative expenses of an estimated 15
million euros. From approximately 35,000 electricity producers is raised an
additional 12 million euros because they must submit the yearly approvals. The
result: while the electricity production of this group in fact remains tax
free, it will nevertheless in the future increase the public and private
bureaucratic expenditure.
Bernhard Daldrup
(SPD): Always the bureaucracy!
The ravenous EU bureaucracy strikes once again. That is a waste of
resources –
Bernhard Daldrup
(SPD): Always the same proverbs!
- which is typical of the EU bureaucracy.
[Translated by Todd Martin]
