High fuel prices: Klingbeil calls for a windfall tax on oil companies
With the Iran war, fuel prices have risen sharply. This is a burden on motorists, while oil companies make higher profits. Now the finance minister wants to ask mineral oil companies to pay more.
German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil and five European colleagues are calling for an EU-wide windfall tax on oil companies' profits. In a letter to the Irish Finance Minister, they argue that the tax is needed to address the surge in living costs and to ensure that those profiting from the crisis contribute to reducing the burden on the general population.
The ministers, from Portugal, Spain, Austria, Italy, Poland, and Germany, propose discussing a new EU framework to tax excess profits and to investigate oil companies' margins. They want the issue to be put on the agenda of a meeting of EU economic and finance ministers in Dublin in mid-September. The call for a windfall tax has been supported by the SPD but opposed by some, including Economics Minister Katherina Reiche.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's report — not a translation of it. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
