Gas pricing

If you drive a car in Germany, you know how much gas costs here: around 1,5-1,6 Euro per liter. I don't need to tell you that this is quite high, when we know that countries with higher living standard, like Switzerland, have cheaper prices. 


Why so expensive?
The first component is the Produkteinstandpreis, or the price at which the petrol is bought at the Rotterdam stock exchange. This is 56 cent. The next one is the Deckungsbeitrag, or the surcharge for the oil companies to be able to cover their costs: 10,8 cent per liter. This also includes their profit! Then comes the energy tax (including the ecology tax), which is 65 cent. According to the experts, as this is measured by the liter and not by the price, the German state is not profiting from a higher price. The total collected sum is 40 Billion Euro per year...I would call that a good profit. The last part is the VAT, 19% or 25 cent. 


Boycotting
According to Bild, there is a facebook group asking consumers not to visit a gas station on 1st March. Allegedly, the group (or event?) already has 500.000 fans. I could not find this group on facebook, otherwise I would immediately join it!
On second thought, Big Oil has the lowest share of the price! It is against the government tax that we should unite.


Pendlerpauschale
This is the commuting allowance, literally: the money that you get per kilometer (30 cent) on the distance between home and work. ADAC and the Taxpayer Union (TU) have asked the government to increase this allowance, as it is becoming obsolete with the constantly increasing gas price. The TU calculated the yearly cost for an average driver (50km to work, 220 days per year): 4466 Euro, while the allowance sums up to 3300 Euro! The overall car spending could reach 53 cent per kilometer.


The answer from the government is NO. Of course, Germany now needs money for Greece. Dear readers, tighten your belts in Germany so that our Greek neighbours can be saved...


What do you think?