{"id":4139,"date":"2026-04-13T08:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T08:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/4139\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T08:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T08:52:07","slug":"germany-plans-1-9-billion-of-fuel-price-relief-to-tackle-energy-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/4139\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany plans $1.9 billion of fuel price relief to tackle energy crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

BERLIN, April 13 (Reuters) – Germany’s coalition government has agreed fuel price relief for consumers and businesses worth 1.6 billion euros ($1.9 billion), ending a spat about how to react to a spike in oil prices due to the Iran war https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/iran\/.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The energy tax on diesel and petrol will be reduced by about 0.17 euros per litre for two months, the conservative CDU party and its centre-left SPD coalition partners said on Monday.<\/p>\n

\n The Iran war https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/iran\/ has caused the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies, and a planned U.S. blockade nL6N40V09S of Iranian ports and coastal areas is further inflating crude oil prices nL1N40V07F.<\/p>\n

\n “This war is the real cause of the problems we are experiencing in our own country as well,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at a press conference.<\/p>\n

\n He added that the coalition was doing everything it could to tackle problems caused by the war, which has been put on hold for now in a fragile ceasefire deal.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n The coalition also agreed to allow companies to pay a 1,000 euro relief bonus per employee, free of payroll taxes and social security charges.<\/p>\n

\n In talks over the weekend, the partners appear to have defused a row that erupted nL6N40T0LA on Friday when Economy Minister Katherina Reiche, a Merz party ally, criticised measures suggested by Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil of the Social Democrats centred\u00a0on a special tax on oil companies’ windfall profits.<\/p>\n

\n A person close to Merz, however, told Reuters that Reiche’s remarks undermined a push by the chancellor to resolve coalition disputes discreetly.<\/p>\n

\n The government was under pressure to act because Europe’s largest economy was already struggling with weak growth and global tariff ructions.<\/p>\n

\n On Monday, Merz said Germany opposes a planned 2027 tightening of European Union CO2 levies for hybrid vehicles and would argue in Brussels for a more “technology-open” approach, including recognition of cars powered by renewable fuels.<\/p>\n

\n The government is also preparing broader income tax reform for lower- and middle-income groups from January 2027.<\/p>\n

\n ($1 = 0.8556 euros)<\/p>\n

\n (Reporting by Andreas Rinke, Maria Martinez and Miranda Murray, writing by Ludwig Burger, editing by Kirsten Donovan)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN, April 13 (Reuters) – Germany’s coalition government has agreed fuel price relief for consumers and businesses worth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5,548],"class_list":{"0":"post-4139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-germany","9":"tag-markets"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}