German ministers under pressure to scrap gas levy after anger over profits

theguardian.com:

The German government is under pressure to radically revise or scrap a controversial new gas levy on already stretched consumers after it emerged that some energy companies seeking a share of the surcharge have posted billion-euro earnings.

Robert Habeck, the economy minister, said his ministry acknowledged the angry response to the surcharge and would urgently review the aid package in an attempt to prevent gas importers whose businesses have profited from recent energy inflation from benefiting from it.

The conservative opposition CDU/CSU said on Friday it would be fighting to overturn the levy. As criticism of Habeck poured in from his coalition partners, the pro-business liberal FDP and the Social Democrats, there was even speculation that the controversy around the scheme could lead to the collapse of the government.

However, Habeck stressed a levy, due to be implemented in October, was necessary to ensure German energy security and to stop some companies, which have faced higher costs in acquiring energy from other sources after Russia’s squeeze on its deliveries of gas, from going bust.

Habeck admitted his policy was a “political problem”, adding it was “certainly not morally right that companies who, to put it bluntly, have earned shed loads of money, are able to say … due to the relative drop in our income we’re going to ask the population for help and we expect them to give us money.”

But he told Die Welt in a subsequent interview, in which he said he would be “taking a closer look” at the policy, he was concerned there may be no legal way around the levy if energy provision to Europe’s largest economy over the critical winter months was to be secured.

The revelation that of the 12 companies which had initially