Cyprus Mail 3 March 2022 - by Nick Theodoulou
Tax on petrol is to be cut by seven cents a litre while the period for the reduced VAT on electricity costs is to be extended, the finance minister announced on Thursday.
The announcement came following a meeting convened by Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides who said that cutting the tax on petrol was done to the maximum extent permitted under EU law.
The move comes as petrol station owners warned this week that the public must brace for further price hikes, with costs likely reaching a further 10-15 cents per litre in the next couple of weeks.
On Monday, UK petrol and diesel prices exceeded the “grim milestone” of 150p a litre for the first time, with further rises expected.
The growing international isolation of Russia over its invasion of Ukraine has led to a dramatic price hike.
Russia is both the world’s second-largest exporter of crude oil and refined petrol, and the largest exporter of natural gas, mostly via pipelines to western Europe. The EU and its allies have said they want to put maximum pressure on Russia, but not set off an energy crisis that hurts their own people and plunges the world economy into recession.
