Household package - Özdemir wants to ease the burden on farmers
Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir wants to withdraw at least one of the two planned financial burdens for farmers from the budget package. "We've gone too far," said the Green politician on ZDF's "heute journal".
Specifically, Özdemir mentioned the two decisions that, on the one hand, the energy tax for tractor diesel should no longer be refunded to farms in future and, on the other hand, agricultural and forestry vehicles should no longer be exempt from vehicle tax. "We are holding these talks with the aim of preventing this from happening," said Özdemir, referring to the other members of the federal government. He himself is looking for ways in which the money to be saved can be raised in other ways.
On Monday, thousands of farmers in Berlin had protested against the planned end to tax concessions with indignant protests and a long column of tractors. The plans would place an additional burden of one billion euros per year on the sector. Özdemir also finds it problematic that there is currently no alternative to diesel for farmers: "There is no other way to fuel heavy agricultural machinery."
The anger was triggered by savings plans in the agricultural sector for the 2024 federal budget, which became known following an agreement between Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP). The savings had become necessary in various areas of the budget because the Federal Constitutional Court had overturned several previous budget management practices.
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Cem Özdemir, the Agriculture Minister, is discussing ways to preserve the vehicle tax exemption for agricultural and forestry vehicles, as the removal of this exemption is one of the financial burdens he wants to alleviate from farmers. This discussion follows protests in Berlin, where farmers demonstrated against the planned end to tax concessions, arguing that they would face an additional burden of one billion euros per year. Cem Özdemir also highlighted the challenge of finding an alternative fuel source for heavy agricultural machinery in Germany.
Source: www.stern.de
