DISY suspicious over CoLA’s sudden entry into election campaign

OPPOSITION DISY has accused the government of electioneering in the wake of AKEL’s proposal to increase the cost of living allowance (CoLA), claiming that it only remembers the working class before elections and then forgets them immediately.

The CoLA is a percentage added to one’s base salary to adjust for changes in the consumer price index, thereby compensating – at least in theory – for inflation.

In 1999 the government decided to remove consumption tax from CoLA calculations and leave only the VAT, thereby exempting certain heavily taxed goods like alcohol and tobacco from CoLA.

Left-wing trade union PEO, in favour with AKEL of restoring the old CoLA, said it possessed data that people’s purchasing power had dropped by up to three per cent since the changes introduced under the Clerides government.

But DISY deputy chairman Averoff Neophytou said that with elections looming the government has merely pulled the proposal “out of the drawer”.

Neophytou said AKEL had “forgotten the workers” and “left CoLA in the closet” from 2003 to 2005.

“They only remembered CoLA after Parliament closed 30 days before elections,” Neophytou said, adding that the worker should keep in mind that the government “would again forget [CoLA] on May 22”.

Christofias replied that AKEL had first suggested adjusting CoLA in 2005 when no elections were due.

The DISY deputy chairman also blasted AKEL’s policy of increasing taxes, claiming that increased taxation curbs economic growth and stifles the competitive climate essential to a robust economy.

Neophytou sought to reverse the populism cards on AKEL for its proposal to increase the corporate tax, claiming that “almost every [Cypriot] household is included” in the 90,000 companies that submit their tax forms.

At a news conference on Wednesday AKEL and PEO called on right-wing trade union SEK to join them in an effort to restore the old CoLA.

Instrumental in removing consumption tax from CoLA calculations in 1999, SEK replied that its 1999 efforts in cooperation with civil servants union PASYDY had “safeguarded the institution of CoLA for many future years”, adding that PEO and AKEL were “seeking to suppress the institution”.
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