Germany to fund new emergency gas reserve via consumer levy, draft says

By Holger Hansen BERLIN, Oct 13 (Reuters) — Germany plans to fund a proposed national emergency gas reserve via a levy on households of up to €7.20 ($8.06) per year, according to a draft bill seen on Tuesday, despite criticism from lawmakers in the coalition government. The levy will help cover the estimated cost of up to €3.08 billion over the first 10 years, according to the draft. The coalition's parliamentary groups had in July rejected charging consumers and businesses, already burdened by high energy prices, to pay for the new reserve that is meant to replace legally mandated storage fill level requirements. Germany's economy ministry could not immediately be reached for comment on the status of the legislation. Minister Katherina Reiche, from Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives, had also floated financing through the federal budget or a hybrid model. According to the draft, the reserve is intended to maintain additional gas volumes for extreme scenarios such as sabotage or the failure of critical infrastructure. The target size is 24 terawatt-hours (TWh) of gas, which would be sufficient to cover the loss of Germany's largest gas import infrastructure for 30