BERLIN - Germany's economy minister wants to adjust a new gas levy on consumers to help utilities cover the cost of replacing Russian supplies, so that the funds go only to utilities that truly need them, Die Welt newspaper reported.
Currently even those companies not in existential crisis have a right to payments from the levy, Die Welt cited him as saying at a business event in Muenster.
"There is maybe a legally justified right, we will now have to take a closer look at whether there is a way to fend off this justified right," he was quoted as saying.
The economy ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
German gas market operator Trading Hub Europe (THE) on Monday released a list of companies that have asked for payments from funds it collects under a new gas levy to be charged to consumers from Oct. 1 through March 2024.
The levy was set a week ago to help importers and distributors cope with soaring gas prices as they replace shortfalls in Russian exports in the midst of East-West tension over the invasion of Ukraine.
It is "certainly not morally right that companies that have earned a fortune then say: for the few exceptions we had, we ask the population for help, it should also give us money," Habeck was quoted as saying.
