Despite the tax cut, prices at gas stations have apparently not fallen significantly.  The SPD chairman is now proposing other strategies for noticeably relieving consumers.
 
 Berlin.  
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil wants to tax "crisis and war profiteers" more heavily and has his sights set particularly on the mineral oil companies.
 
 "It cannot be that on the one hand the mineral oil companies fill their pockets even more in the crisis," Klingbeil told the newspapers of the Funke media group.  "And on the other hand, hard-working people have to discuss with their families whether to cancel summer vacation or how to finance the next tank of gas."
 In view of the relief packages worth billions, he is working intensively on the question of "how we deal with the winners of the crisis and the war, who are benefiting massively from the current situation," said Klingbeil.  "We have to use them more to finance the common good."  The SPD chairman was open to an excess profit tax to siphon off extreme crisis profits: "A tax on war and crisis profits is an instrument that is on the table and that I think is very worth considering."  Such a tax is already being used in Great Britain and Italy, and the European Commission is also in favor of it.
 
Petroleum companies under criticism
 The petroleum companies are being criticized for the high fuel prices.  A reduction in energy taxes on Wednesday had only caused prices to drop temporarily according to the current status.  Recently they had risen again in many places.
 SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch is also pushing for stricter laws in view of the persistently high fuel prices.  "We have to ask ourselves whether certain profits are not immoral," Miersch told the Süddeutsche Zeitung (Saturday).  Miersch referred to the still valid price law of 1948, which also allows the public setting of prices.  "Politicians must now consider what answers they have in addition to financial relief that will get to the root of the problem," said Miersch.  This also includes skimming off so-called excess profits.
 Federal Finance Minister and FDP leader Christian Lindner called inflation "the greatest threat to economic development and social peace" in the country: "Therefore, combating it must have priority in all important tasks," Lindner told the "Passauer Neue Presse" (Saturday). .  In order to limit the loss of purchasing power among people, the federal government has already acted through targeted relief.  
 
Dispute about climate money
 Lindner rejects the proposal by Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) for social climate money.  He could imagine a tax break.  "Were doing a wage and income tax reform next year, adjusting the basic tax allowance and the tax rate for inflation. And if I have my way, there will be additional relief for those on small and medium-sized incomes."
 Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir considers further help for the citizens to be necessary.  The Greens politician told Welt am Sonntag: "I am concerned about the current price trend for food due to the war in Ukraine."  The federal government immediately put together relief packages in order to react to the consequences of the war.  "And if things continue like this, then I can tell you: After the relief package is before the relief package."
 CDU leader Friedrich Merz warned against the expectation that the state would compensate for all the additional costs caused by inflation.  "Not every cost development can be offset by the public coffers," Merz told the editorial network Germany (Saturday).  "If low-income households can no longer bear certain burdens, this can be cushioned by direct state aid."  The relief proposals from the Union faction are on the table.  These included the abolition of cold progression, a flat-rate energy price for pensioners and students and the reduction of electricity tax to the EU minimum tax rate.
 Farmers are assuming that food prices will continue to rise.  Farmer President Joachim Rukwied told the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung": "The end of the road has not yet been reached."  He referred to the increased costs on farms for fuel or fertilizer.  The expenses are only now really taking their toll.  "We farmers inevitably need higher prices in order to be able to do business at all. I assume that prices in supermarkets will continue to rise in the near future."  (dpa)