Germany lowers natural gas tax to ease burden on consumers

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says the government will temporarily lower taxes on natural gas to ease the financial pressure on people struggling with soaring energy costs. The announcement Thursday at a hastily convened news conference in Berlin comes a day after Scholz met with hostile protests during a town hall event outside the capital. Scholz said his government decided to lower the value-added tax on gas from 19% to 7% until the end of March 2024. In addition to rising prices for natural gas caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, consumers will have to pay a new surcharge to prop up energy companies scrambling to find new supplies on the global market.