AT LEAST Archbishop Chrysostomos II is showing consistency; from his uncompromising stance on the Cyprus problem, he remains equally uncompromising on paying the Church’s tax debts.
“We will not pay one cent; as long as I am Church leader, I will not consent to giving even one euro,” he defiantly announced during his ‘historic’ appearance at the House Watchdog Committee meeting.
He had been invited to the committee to give his position on the €169 million owed by the Church in tax arrears. These are all pre-1999 debts on capital gains and immovable property tax, of which €86 million are the interest charges.
The Archbishop has taken a rigid stance because he believes that a deal struck with the Papadopoulos government over the arrears should be put in force. He does well to stick to his guns, considering that this outrageous deal provided for the writing off of all the Church’s tax arrears.
In exchange, the Church would have undertaken to pay capital gains tax and immovable property tax on all properties sold after signing the deal but would be exempt from paying immovable property tax on any property that was not sold.
This grossly one-sided deal may explain why the Archbishop openly supported the re-election of the late Tassos Papadopoulos in 2008. The Papadopoulos government, however, never ratified the agreement. According to Chrysostomos II, the late president had not submitted it to the Council of Ministers for approval because the elections were approaching and he felt it could be exploited politically. Another explanation could be that Papadopoulos changed his mind when he realised that the deal benefited only the Church.
But the fact is there is no deal and the Christofias government has no obligation to honour a deal agreed in principle by his predecessor but never ratified by the government. Does the Christofias government, which consistently shies away from any form of dispute, possess the political will to take on a belligerent Archbishop who thrives on confrontation?
Chrysostomos II thinks not, which was why he took such a provocative attitude at the House. It was aimed at frightening off Christofias. Whether he succeeds remains to be seen.
The government would look particularly ridiculous if it ignored the Church’s huge tax debt at a time when it will supposedly be clamping down on tax evasion. Why should the Church be exempt from taxation? This is not the 18th, but the 21st century and it is high time the Church of Cyprus was forced to surrender its privileges. Christofias must not allow Chrysostomos II to have his way – even if it means taking the Church to court.
