Greens Calls For Tax Hike on Gas, Energy

Germany should increase taxes on gas and electricity Reinhard Loske, Green party deputy parliamentary group leader, told the Freie Press newspaper in its Tuesday issue. The pressure to rationalize must be shifted from work to energy use, Loske said. Developing the so-called "ecology tax" levied on gasoline, electricity and energy would encourage businesses to cut down on energy use rather than employees. Loske said the ecology tax had been a success, leading to a nearly 10 percent drop in gas consumption. He added that as a result of the tax, Germans still only had to pay 19.5 percent of wages in social security payments. Without the tax, which is used to pay for social security, the amount would have climbed to 21.2 percent by now, according to Loske. The Social Democratic-Green party coalition that governs Germany introduced the tax in 1999.