Filenews 28 August 2021
The confirmation by the EAC of the large increase (38%) that occurred in the price of the kilowatt-hour for the electricity measurements of August, compared to the prices last August (increases were also recorded in the previous months) provokes reactions from the opposition parties, which are asking the government to take measures to immediately reduce the burden on consumers, with a corresponding reduction in the revenues of the state or of the EAC.
In a new announcement yesterday, EDEK calls on the Minister of Energy and Trade to intervene in order to put a ceiling on the price of electricity. "IT IS AND MUST", stated in the announcement of EDEK, the Minister of Energy "act to reduce the price of electricity". He explains: "We propose that the Minister of Energy and Commerce make use of the provisions of the 2012 legislation on setting maximum wholesale and retail prices in special cases, and set a maximum selling price of electricity per kilowatt. Since it can set a maximum selling price for basic necessities and since electricity is included in this category, it can and must proceed to the reduction of the rate of Value Added Tax from 19% to 5% for electricity".
EDEK also asks that VAT is levied only on fuel consumption and not on all charges in the electricity authority of Cyprus.
Finally, it recalls its earlier proposal that the payment of VAT, in the midst of a pandemic, should start to be paid in equal instalments over the next two years.
For its part, AKEL, through the member of the Political Bureau Harry Polycarpou, argues that "society is once again called upon to pay the increased cost to electricity, a result of nine years of inaction and procrastination of the government of Anastasiades – DISY in the advent of natural gas and the introduction of renewable energy sources in the economy".
It is added that "for years AKEL, in parliament but also in public, has submitted specific proposals and has sent a series of memoranda to the competent ministries. But they have all met with the government's refusal to take decisions and actions, serving the big private interests and burdening the cost on consumers and society."
According to AKEL, "the situation is equally difficult in fuel. Here, too, the government has shown inexcusable negligence. When they were in opposition they set up tv shows at petrol stations. Today, after nine years in the governance of the country, they did nothing to deal with the problem."
A statement was issued yesterday by ELAM, which "calls on the government and the competent minister to intervene immediately, in order to reduce the prices of electricity, since it is a commodity of essentials. It is inconceivable and totally unacceptable", adds ELAM, "the fact that at the same time that our compatriots are making arrangements to cope with the payment of their unreasonably high bills, we are provocatively providing, as a Republic of Cyprus, free electricity to the occupied territories".
