OWNERS of satellite dishes over 1.6 metres in diameter will have to pay £60 to the Ministry of Communications and Works for a satellite dish licence, a dealer confirmed yesterday.
Speaking to the Sunday Mail, Costas Papacostas of satellite dish dealers Malloupas and Papacostas said the law on satellite dish licences was passed in 1993, but it was not strictly enforced.
“You only have to pay for the licence once,” he said. “Every year dealers have to send a list to the Ministry of Communications and Works containing the names of all owners of satellite dishes with a diameter greater than 1.6 metres.
“The law was passed in 1993 when everybody owning a satellite dish, regardless of the size, had to pay £60 for an operating licence,” he said.
Papacostas said dealers had neglected to send the lists to the Ministry over the past two years because of the pressure of too much work and the issue seemed to be forgotten. But he added that dealers were ordered recently by the Ministry of Communications and Works to submit lists of dish owners.
“A few days ago we received a memo from the ministry asking us why we hadn’t been giving them any names of satellite dish owners, and we were told that all satellite dish owners with a diameter over 1.6 metres would have to pay for the licence,” he said.
Papacostas said the extra money was no big deal for people buying very expensive dishes, but that some customers on a budget had complained the price was too high.
Owners who have bought a satellite dish since 1997 and who have not paid for a licence will receive letters over the next few weeks reminding them to do so.
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.
