Food prices and the euro

Sir,

It is disingenuous for those in authority to say food prices won’t increase next January when Cyprus enters the little-loved euro zone.

Have they quietly forgotten that the Cyprus government is slapping VAT on food from January 1, 2008? As for the public, most I’ve spoken to in recent days in Limassol claimed they’d no idea such a tax was being introduced on food. One pensioner quipped “I’ll just have to smoke more cigarettes!”

VAT on food cannot, thankfully,  be one of those “selective taxes” – it must be paid by all, Cypriot and non-Cypriot, which will be some crumb of comfort to the expat community who know about the two-tier pricing system operated by many businesses in on the Island of Aphrodite.

John Thorpe, MBE
Limassol and Leeds.

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.