(Bloomberg) -- German Economy Minister Robert Habeck warned that the country’s biggest gas supplier Uniper SE could collapse if the government is forced to withdraw a new levy designed to compensate companies for soaring prices.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government is imposing a levy on gas consumption from Oct. 1 and plans to use the cash to help stop suppliers -- including Uniper -- from going bust. The measure has been widely criticized because energy companies which aren’t in trouble can also benefit and some members of Scholz’s ruling coalition have joined calls for it to be reworked or scrapped entirely.

“The technical details of this levy can surely still be reconsidered,” Habeck told reporters in Berlin on Friday. At the same time, he warned that “if you get rid of the levy” companies like Uniper would probably go bust, which could have even more dramatic consequences for German consumers.

“This would lead to a totally different social debate,” Habeck said. Securing Germany’s gas supply amid uncertainty over deliveries from Russia is the priority, he added.

Steffen Hebestreit, Scholz’s chief spokesman, earlier reiterated Habeck’s appeal to companies that they shouldn’t apply for the compensation if they don’t need it.

“First though, there is an effort underway to find a legally watertight means of stopping” firms in no financial danger from tapping the aid, Hebestreit said Friday at a regular government news conference in Berlin. He cited RWE AG and Shell Plc as examples of firms that have voluntarily foregone the money.

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