Government figures show that many car owners have still renew their road tax with the Road Transport Department deadline only ten days away.
With the March 11 deadline approaching, only half of registered car owners in Cyprus have actually renewed their road tax.
According to Road Transport Department data, this year’s figures show that 347,500 drivers had renewed their road tax by February 28, making up 55.15% of the 630,000 vehicle total.
The numbers indicate a slight improvement on 2016, when 340,000 car owners, or 55% of the total, had renewed their road tax by the end of February.
However, given that 282,500 vehicles have yet to have their road tax renewed, the procedure will have to be carried out for around 28,000 cars per day for their owners to meet the ten-day deadline.
Car owners have had since January 7 to renew their road tax and, according to department data, the first few days saw around 28,000 people per day using its online system before the numbers began tapering off.
Road tax can be renewed online, or at Road Transport Department offices, at Citizen Service Centres, and at banks.
This year has seen a new record set in the number of cars being permanently taken off the roads by the owners. Figures have already reached over 80,000.
Up until five years ago when the banking crisis began to take hold, the annual number would never exceed 25,000-35,000. Significant increases began in 2014 reaching 50,000 before climbing to 65,000 in 2016.
