But is it all a just load of politics?
THE GOVERNMENT has been forced to defend itself on all sides from accusations of electioneering after it announced its new packet of energy measures on Wednesday.
The accusations have come from opposition DISY and citizens from the mountainous regions, over the £17.25 million package of energy measures, which will be implemented on November 1.
The measures include: a three cent reduction per litre in the consumption tax on heating fuels; a one-time payment of £50 for pensioners who make under £500 per month; £100 for those on public assistance; an allocation of two million pounds for families with multiple children and another allocation of £2.2 million for heating fuel assistance to those who live in mountainous regions over 600 metres in elevation.
The Parliament must vote on the package by the end of October, which means that it will likely be taking a vote sometime next week.
At a press conference yesterday with the Trade Minister, George Lillikas, the Finance Minister Michalis Sarris, characterised the plan as a “sufficiently generous package”.
Sarris said that the government is working on a second string of measures to alleviate the high oil prices, which will soon be announced.
With Parliamentary elections approaching early next year, the announcement of the package and the critical response it has prompted from opposition parties marks the informal opening of the campaign trail, with opposing candidates jumping to either condemn the package or dismiss it as insufficient, while simultaneously suggesting that they would give much more.
Press Spokesman of coalition partner AKEL, Andros Kyprianou, said that the government was making steps in the right direction and that the recent financial troubles that beset citizens were due to economic conditions, not government ineptitude.
EDEK Deputy George Varnava also said that the government is moving in the right direction to deal with the negative repercussions of the oil price hikes, but noted that with the current measures it is “not possible to effectively relieve the economic burden among the majority of the population [of the price hikes] since they have created a chain reaction of increases in the goods and serves of wide popular consumption.”
Varnava proposed drastically reducing the consumption tax on heating fuels to the one cent minimum that the European Union allows, the abolition of road tax, and the abolition of the land registry tax for the purchase of a first residence that does not exceed 180 square metres or £100,000.
Opposition DISY, however, went on the offensive yesterday, issuing a statement that claimed that only £8.75 million of the £17.25 million package of measures – the part that consisted of subsidies – could truly be considered a social contribution.
The party went further to accuse the government of profiteering off the increased oil prices through its tax revenue.
Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides yesterday lambasted DISY for its criticism, noting that every time social support measures are announced for the more vulnerable classes of the population, DISY “is bothered so much that it gets confused, so much so that it doesn’t even read what they [the measures] are about.”
Chrysostomides referred to the £17.25 million package of measures as “extraordinary”, adding that it is designed to “provide relief from the high energy costs to the economically vulnerable classes of the population from November 1, 2005 until March 31, 2006.”
“It appears that with its vested hasty interest in exercising opposition, DISY avoids, or overlooks, or wants to manipulate… without focusing its attention on the extraordinary nature of these measures. So either they [DISY] understood the measures or they didn’t want to say anything, trying to hide reality and create false impressions in the citizen.”
Chrysostomides also referred to the DISY calculations that suggested the government has reaped in £267 million due to the high oil prices, calling it another “instance of a deliberate effort at manipulation”.
The Government spokesman was not the only one who had strong words for critics of the energy packet. Interior Minister, Andreas Christou, reacted when the community leader of Paliochorio, Tassos Michaelides, criticised the measures that the government offered for residents of mountainous areas and called the behaviour of the government ‘unacceptable’.
“The behaviour of the government is unacceptable, not only for the height that it announces [600 metres] and for the measures, but also for its attitude towards us”, Michaelides said, noting that he sent a request to the Interior Minister a month ago to meet with him for a discussion on the energy measures in the presence of the Finance and Trade Minister but never received a reply.
“Yesterday, a fellow community leader went down to the Interior Ministry but they had lost the letter – if that’s possible – and couldn’t find it”, Michaelides said. “Either we have to pack up here and head down to the cities, or we have to implement some measures.”
Michaelides went on to say that residents of mountainous areas pay five times as much consumption tax on heating fuels and on petrol. “We are the most heavily taxed and this is unacceptable. The government can’t treat us as if we are the richest and most privileged class in this place.”
Christou characterised Michaelides’ response as unjustifiable. “All this is in the fantasy of Mr. Michaelides, whom I love greatly, but who unfortunately often makes the mistake of being unfair with everyone, which may be the case now.”
Christou noted that documents “don’t get lost” in the Ministry. “But when you come to see an official, the official can’t have all the correspondence of the Ministry in front of him.”
Christou also denied that the government does not work with communities in the mountainous areas, citing two meetings with their representatives last year.
“We adopted for the first time a subsidy of £5.5 million to these communities – there was never such a subsidy before – and £2.2 million in assistance not only for heating, but also for support of the mountainous citizens. And we maintain a close relationship with them.
“So for them to be saying these things is more for them to be making noise and does not reflect reality.”
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