By Melina Demetriou
PUMP prices will soon come down in line with falling oil prices, if the President does not veto a bill adopted by Parliament yesterday.
The House Plenum yesterday approved a proposal tabled by AKEL, DIKO and KISOS reintroducing the automatic pump price adjustment mechanism.
The mechanism adjusts petrol, diesel and kerosene prices in accordance with fluctuations in the price of crude, which is currently low.
The temporary mechanism had been in effect until October, when it ran out and the government decided not to renew it. For as long as it was in place, prices went up. When it expired in October, they ought to have come down for the first time, but the government chose not to put it up for renewal.
Without the mechanism, the government needs parliamentary approval to change pump prices.
The House Finance Committee last month called for the re-establishment of the automatic system, accusing the government of ripping off motorists by keeping prices high.
Addressing a plenary session yesterday, Finance Committee chairman Marcos Kyprianou of DIKO noted that the government had promised several years ago to draw up effective legislation to sort out the whole issue of petrol pricing.
” However, nothing has been done yet: that is why we have submitted this proposal,”Kyprianou said.
The proposal was approved by a slim majority: 25 deputies from AKEL, DIKO, KISOS and the Greens voted in favour of the bill and 20 from ruling DISY, junior coalition partners the United Democrats and right wing ADIK voted against it
DISY deputy Prodromos Prodromou warned the three opposition
parties that President Glafcos Clerides might veto the law as unconstitutional.
The mechanism guarantees petrol companies £2 million a month in state subsidies
” This is not in line with the Constitution The state cannot normally use taxpayers’ money to help companies sell their product at a lower price, “Prodromou argued.
The argument did not wash with KISOS:
” We are not a legal body we are a political one therefore we are allowed to pass bills according to our political judgement,”countered the party’s Doros Theodorou, adding that the state had not deemed the mechanism unconstitutional while it was in effect.
Commerce Minister Nicos Rolandis admitted earlier this week that Clerides had chosen to overlook the issue when the government passed the original law that expired in October.
But DISY’s Prodromou argued it was unfair for those who did not drive, such as the elderly, to have to pay for those who did.
Stavros Evagorou of AKEL argued the reintroduction of the old system would counter the effects of the rise in fuel taxes included in the tax reform package pending parliamentary approval
