DISY can’t hide – Article by Eleni Mavrou, AKEL Political Bureau member

 

Sunday 6 February 2022, ‘Haravgi’ newspaper

DISY can’t hide things… This was confirmed – once again – a few days ago by DISY President Averof Neophytou, when in the face of the outcry over the unjustified increases imposed by private interests to whom they gave the Limassol port as a present, instead of demanding that the companies be pressured to take back these increases, he proposed that the state should absorb them!

In other words, instead of demanding explanations for these increases (up to 96%) in the tariffs that the private companies impose, he wants society to pay double and triple the excess profits of the port’s businessmen.

Anyway, the “love” Averof Neophytou and other DISY leading officials have for the banks, big developers and powerful interests is well known…

Let alone the fact that those responsible for the scandalous privatization deal of the largest port in the country should normally have been held to account. The Attorney General however was too busy erasing from the Inquiry Committee’s findings on the “golden” passports scheme to deal with the Audit Service’s report on the Limassol port, which has been in the drawers of the Attorney General’s Office for almost 4 years.

Of course, Averof Neophytou or the other DISY leading officials did not show the same sensitivity concerning the electricity bills that are hurting households and businesses. Instead, they fought, together with their government, against the approval of AKEL’s proposal for an open-ended reduction, at least, of VAT on electricity from 19% to 9%. And when the majority of Parliament decided otherwise, President Anastasiades made sure that it was not implemented.

In the meantime, the four-month period when the Cyprus Electricity Authority (AHK) decided to absorb 10% of the electricity price increase is over, the three-month period of the targeted reduction of VAT on electricity is ending and the subsequent electricity bills will skyrocket again.

The European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simpson stated months ago that “there are tools” that EU countries can develop to deal with the situation. In Cyprus, however, the government ruling forces are still looking for the tools…

AKEL has put forward specific proposals. Let’s see what excuse they will find this time to reject them:

– The proposal for lowest price tendering for the purchase of energy from renewable energy sources that are also integrated into the electricity market, as is the4 norm in a number of other European countries, ensuring prices that are three and four times cheaper,

– The proposal calling for the abolition of the public service charge paid by all consumers every two months,

– The proposal to use part of the revenues from the auctioning of pollutants to tackle energy poverty, as provided for in the relevant legislation.

It may not be of any concern to those in government that Cyprus is a leader in energy poverty and that 180,000 of our fellow citizens live in households that are financially unable to heat their homes. However, energy is a social good to which all citizens must have access and at low prices.

This obligation cannot be met with wishful thinking and vague commitments.