Heating subsidies on their way

GOVERNMENT Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides yesterday confirmed that President Tassos Papadopoulos had given instructions to speed up the process of subsidising heating fuel, with the first cheques expected to be issued by next week.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday, Chrysostomides said pensioners and people living in mountainous areas would be compensated.

Those eligible for government grants (around 14,500 homes) would receive subsidies of £200, while pensioners getting less than £500 a month (65,000 homes) would receive £70 in subsidies.

Communications and Works Minister Kikis Kazamias told Politis these subsidies would be sent immediately, while subsidies for the 9,500 residents of mountainous areas above 1,600 feet would be sent after assurances from the local authorities.

Kazamias said that fuel prices would go down again from June, with the conversion of the Larnaca Petroleum Refinery into a fuel import terminal and its running costs are lowered.

But opposition DISY has asked for the heating fuel subsidies to be more than the £11 million the government is thought to be spending.

DISY deputy Lefteris Christoforou proposed a reduction of tax on heating fuel from 14 cents to one cent, a suggestion that was rejected by DIKO and AKEL deputies Aristos Chrysostomou and Christos Mavrokordatos as impossible to implement.

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.