The federal and state governments are expecting corona costs of up to 1.3 trillion in 2020
State aid and other expenses to cope with the corona crisis could have cost the federal and state governments up to 1.3 trillion euros in 2020. This emerges from a response from the Ministry of Finance to a request from left-wing parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch, which is available to the German Press Agency and which the editorial network Germany reported on Thursday. However, this sum also includes guarantees of around 826.5 billion euros, which are guaranteed by the federal and state governments and of which it is not known how much they will have to take effect. Expected loss of income due to lower taxes are also taken into account.
For the year 2021, the federal government expects further corona follow-up costs of around 184 billion euros, which may also include funds from 2020 that have not been used or have not been used in full. Most of the Corona expenditure in 2020 will be burdened by the federal government, which provided a total of 397.1 billion euros. The federal states and municipalities contributed around 82.8 billion euros. The social security funds paid 27 billion euros, with 25.5 billion of which was accounted for by unemployment and short-time work benefits.
Bartsch criticized that the Corona crisis would be “historically expensive”, but that the federal government did not care who should bear the costs. “We finally need a financial plan for the crisis,” he said. If the profiteers of the crisis were not made more responsible, there could be a tax and cutback hammer for the middle class in 2021 and 2022. “We should apply the Basic Law and decide in the Bundestag to balance the burden before the election,” demanded Bartsch. “We need a one-off levy on the assets of multimillionaires and billionaires, instead of reaching into the wallet of the little people.” (Dpa)
