Dhe SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil has shown himself open to the proposal for a so-called excess profit tax. “A tax on war and crisis profits is an instrument that is on the table and that I think is very worth considering,” he told the Funke media group’s newspapers on Saturday. Such a tax is already being used in Great Britain and Italy, and the European Commission is also in favor of it. “Of course we have to deal with that in Germany.”
In view of the relief packages worth billions, he was working intensively on the question of “how we deal with those who profited from the crisis and the war, who are benefiting massively from the current situation,” explained Klingbeil. “We have to use them more to finance the common good.” The Left Party has been calling for an excess profit tax for a long time. The Greens are also currently open to this.
Klingbeil specifically sent a warning to the oil industry. These companies have “massively increased their profits in recent months,” he said. “Now we’re waiting to see whether the fuel discount that the government has decided on and has just come into force will reach consumers – or whether it will stick with the corporations.”
There is currently no shortage of petrol and diesel, but “speculation by the mineral oil companies. We won’t let them get away with it,” warned Klingbeil. Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) must “intervene at high pressure via antitrust law”.
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