North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) had complained.

Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) as well.

SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich too.

It is about the "justice gap" when people with gas and district heating systems receive relief in the form of one-off payments and price controls, while users of oil or wood pellet heating systems do not.

Julia Loehr

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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On Tuesday, the parliamentary groups of the traffic light coalition agreed on the next relief steps.

The most important innovation in the plans: there should be 1.8 billion euros in a hardship fund for so-called non-conducted heat.

In addition to heating oil and pellets, this also includes coal or liquid gas heating systems.

However, anyone who has such a heating system should not be too happy: State support should only be given if the costs for the heating material have at least doubled - which corresponds to the basic idea on which the gas and electricity price brakes are based.

From the sum, which exceeds twice the previous costs, 80 percent should then be reimbursed.

A maximum of 2000 euros for each household

A de minimis limit of 100 euros will be deducted, with a maximum of 2000 euros per household.

In addition, the hardship fund is only intended for the heating year 2022.

If help is also needed in the new year, you have to make adjustments, it said in Berlin.

Many details of the implementation are still open, as has often been the case recently with the aid programs.

This concerns, for example, the question of whether the doubling compared to the price index of the Federal Statistical Office for the respective heating material - oil, pellets, coal - should be decisive, or the invoice amount that homeowners paid in the previous year.

In order to prevent some people from quickly filling up the heating oil tank, December 1 should be the deadline for the bills.

The 1.8 billion euros are to be financed from the Federal Economic Stabilization Fund, in which a total of 200 billion euros are available for the various energy aids.

The federal states should take over the payment of the aid.

How they do it is their choice.

The countries could tie in with the procedures from the time of the Corona aid, said representatives of the parliamentary groups.

The total sum is to be divided among the countries according to the Königstein key.

This week decision on the second part of the aid

After the December advance payment for gas and district heating taken over by the state, the Bundestag will decide on Thursday on the second part of the aid announced at the end of September, the price brakes, which will apply from January 2023 to April 2024 and will be paid out to households and companies by energy suppliers from March must.

Private consumers and traders receive 80 percent of their previous gas consumption for 12 cents per kilowatt hour.

The price cap for electricity is 40 cents per kilowatt hour.

The state pays the difference to the contractually agreed price.

Industrial customers receive 70 percent of their previous consumption at subsidized prices.

The point that has been disputed in recent weeks, whether companies that make use of the gas and electricity price brakes can continue to pay out bonuses and dividends, has now also been clarified between the traffic light coalitions.

Companies that receive more than 25 million euros in state support are therefore no longer allowed to increase previously agreed payments.

Government aid excludes dividends and bonuses

The fixed salary may not increase by more than one inflation adjustment.

If a company receives more than 50 million euros in aid due to the price brakes, there may be no bonus or dividend payments.

The government had initially not planned any such bans, whereupon the budget holders of the Bundestag called for them in a resolution.

On Tuesday, those involved made no secret of the fact that the price brakes and hardship funds are extremely complex.

This applies above all to the regulations on how the relief in apartment buildings with several owners and tenants should be passed on.

In principle, advance payments for operating costs, which have already been increased due to the rise in energy prices, should be reduced again when the price brakes start to be paid out, in April at the latest.

At the request of the tax authorities, landlords should also provide information about what help they or their tenants have received.

The background is that all those who are still paying the solidarity surcharge should pay tax on the relief from the price brakes.

However, this is not regulated as part of the price brake laws, but separately.

In the medium term, the goal must be to relieve consumers directly, for example via the tax ID, said SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch.