THE ELECTRICITY Authority (EAC) yesterday admitted households could be faced with increases to their electricity bills over the next few years in the name of European Union harmonisation.
The Chairman of the EAC Board of Directors, Giorgos Georgiades, told the Cyprus Mail that readjustments in the billing system were necessary and were effectively being forced on the authority in order to comply with EU directives.
“It’s a readjustment to comply with the EU and not aimed at making a profit for the organisation,” he said.
Unfortunately, Georgiades added, the readjustments involved small gradual increases in the bills paid by households within the next three to five years.
According to the EAC Chairman, household consumers of electricity could be asked to pay around three to four per cent more every year over the next four to five years. The increases would require Cabinet and parliamentary approval.
He noted that even if the Cabinet approved the proposals, they could still be rejected by the House, which, he said, was sensitive and hesitant to impose such price hikes on the public.
Georgiades explained that in the past the industrial sector had paid over and above its consumption in order to subsidise household bills, which were slightly lower than what they should have been.
So, in effect, everyone would now be paying exactly for what they consumed and subsidies would be scrapped, to come in line with the EU acquis communitaire.
Georgiades said household bill had remained effectively unchanged since 1983, with the public only having to foot the cost of fuel increases.
He said this had not been done because of the authority’s generosity, but through the improvement of production, transport and distribution costs.
“The EAC managed to keep billing stable for a long period – 18 years; if we are forced in the next four to five years to impose some very small increases I think Cypriot citizens would accept them,” Georgiades said.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
