AKEL on the issue of VAT on primary homes

 

2 June 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

In relation to the discussions surrounding VAT on primary homes, AKEL recalls and underlines the following:

1. AKEL is the party that warned at least four years ago – with positions, the submission of amendments and through the tabling of its own draft bill – that the reduced VAT on primary homes should be granted to the citizens of the country who need to be supported to acquire housing and not to the investors of ‘golden’ passports. We were not listened to, resulting in the development of a multi-million-euro feast and today resulting in the European Commission initiating procedures against Cyprus.
2. In the discussions on the future of the measure, both the current and the previous government refuse to submit to Parliament the correspondence between the Ministry of Finance and the Commission. What has been in the public domain all along is what the government has been leaking as the Commission’s position. No one can know whether and which of them are true or not. Besides, contradictions have also been identified.
3. The view that we should not assert the best that can be achieved for the benefit of the citizens of Cyprus is problematic. It is through the persistence of AKEL and other parties in Parliament that it has been possible to bring all sides together on important aspects of the issue, such as the issue of the overall cost of housing. What remains is to find a solution to the issue of the total floor area of the dwelling. After all, the philosophy of AKEL’s draft bill submitted since 2019 is based on two criteria: total value and total floor area of the dwelling.

AKEL will continue to work decisively and creatively to find a consensus for a socially just solution that will provide a way out first and foremost for the thousands of young couples in Cyprus who are trying to acquire housing.