AKEL’s proposal to reduce VAT on electricity from 19% to 9% approved – DISY voted against

 

AKEL GS statements VAT 3 Dec 2021

Just a while ago the majority of Parliament approved the reduction of VAT on electricity from 19% to 9%. This was the draft bill that was elaborated and submitted by AKEL and subsequently supported by the Democratic Party DIKO, the Social democrats EDEK and the Ecologists.

Only the ruling DISY party voted against the reduction in VAT, confirming how far removed it is from the needs and problems society is facing. The government must listen to society that is suffering from price hikes and proceed to implement the VAT reduction voted by the Parliament today.

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL, Stefanos Stefanou, in his intervention in the Plenary noted the following:

“I am glad that our proposal is embraced by political parties and hence the message is also conveyed that the effort to protect consumers who justifiably are protesting all day long and wondering what we are doing is common. The message has been sent that we do care. We know the problems. We are trying together to solve the problems, but we facing the government’s reluctance.

If the banks were in the position of the consumers, would the government’s response be the same, bearing in mind that whenever the banks need something the government does everything to prepare and table bills and then pressing us to approve them?”