EAC: huge bills? Blame the state

2011-04-15

THE ELECTRICITY Authority of Cyprus (EAC) regrets to inform you…that the state is to blame for your high electricity bill…due to the delayed arrival of natural gas.

That’s the gist of a leaflet, which the EAC is attaching to the latest batch of bills sent to consumers. Titled “Do you think that the price of electricity is high?” The leaflet is printed in both Greek and English versions.

In it, the EAC defends its pricing policy by citing “objective difficulties” that are beyond its control, such as the lack of economies of scale, a power supply system that is not linked to other countries and a limited choice of fuel.

Father and daughter survive after car careers 70m downhill

2011-04-15

 

A FATHER, 33, and his daughter 7, miraculously escaped when the pick-up truck they were in went off the road and slid over 70-metres down a steep slope at top speed into a ditch.

Both were being treated in hospital yesterday, the girl at Larnaca and her father in Nicosia due to the seriousness of his injures.

The accident happened near Menoyia on the old Larnaca-Kofinou road on Wednesday afternoon.

The vehicle was being driven by Georgios Charalambous, whose daughter Constantia was in the car with him.

According to police the car spun out of control and went off the road, careering and overturning some 70 metres down a slope into a ditch, where it came to a halt facing the incline it had just traversed.

Our View: There must be objective criteria for choosing teachers

2011-04-15

THE GOVERNMENT deserves credit for its attempts to tackle the criminal, waiting-list system for the appointment of secondary school teachers. Understandably, it has not gone for the radical approach of abolishing the waiting-list and introducing a rational and meritocratic system because such a move would have caused a rebellion by graduates waiting to be appointed as well as the teaching unions.

House prices down across the board

2011-04-15

THE ECONOMIC crisis contributed to a “disappointing” drop in Cypriot property prices in the last quarter of 2010, the fifth official survey of house prices revealed yesterday.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) property index ending December 31, 2010, recorded prices drops in all categories (apartments, houses, retail, warehouse and office spaces) and districts bar one: warehouses in Famagusta.

Year-on-year, prices dropped by 10.8 per cent for apartments, 7.4 per cent for houses, 7.0 per cent for retail, 6.3 per cent for office, and 4.8 per cent for warehouses.

Parliament: rollercoaster session fails to deliver on biggest issues

2011-04-15

FOLLOWING a rollercoaster all-day session at the House plenum, politicians yesterday failed to deliver two major items of legislation but decided to give it another go next week.

Parliament was supposed to dissolve after yesterday’s session ahead of the May 22 parliamentary elections, and politicians were scrambling to table to the plenum the government bills on gambling and on multiple pensions.

When it became apparent that there was not enough time, deputies agreed to reconvene the body one more time next Thursday to put to the vote the bill on multiple pensions. To that end, the House Finance Committee will be meeting on Tuesday to take another look at the bill.

Parliament: unanimous vote for bank levy

2011-04-15

 

PARLIAMENT last night unanimously approved a 0.095 per cent tax on bank deposits, expected to fetch the state some €60 million a year.

Lawmakers also amended the law, extending the levy beyond the two years – 2011 and 2012 — as was initially proposed by the government.

The amendment to extend the tax beyond 2012 was submitted by opposition DISY and government partners DIKO. AKEL and EDEK voted against.

The levy was expected to generate around €120 million for its two year validity.

“A financial stability fund is a very important and positive step which will help us deal with any further ratings pressure on our financial system,” said Nicholas Papadopoulos, chairman of the House Finance Commitee.

Parliament: loan sharking now a criminal offence

2011-04-15

LOAN sharking and profiteering are now a criminal offence, punishable with up to 14 months in prison, according to a new law passed yesterday.

Even though the legislation was passed unanimously, it became the subject of a heated debate between the parties, inevitably leading to a showdown over the economy.

With the new law – which doesn’t include banks and co-ops – people will be allowed to take out loans from persons other than banks, but it will only be considered legal if the interest charged is less than 10 units higher than the average interest charged by banks in the preceding year.

Parliament: deputies hand over File of Cyprus to President

2011-04-15

PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias said yesterday the completion of the File of Cyprus was long overdue, as he was handed a copy of the report during a ceremony at the Presidential Palace.

The copy was presented to Christofias by EDEK MP Marinos Sizopoulos, who chaired a special parliamentary committee charged with drafting the report.

“At long last, after so many years, this is a necessity for the country, and I hope that this material is made use of in the proper way,” Christofias said at the ceremony.

The File covers the period 1967 to 1974 and the events leading up to the coup against Makarios, and the Turkish invasion.

Some progress, but long haul for talks

2011-04-15

THE leaders have in recent weeks been making progress on specific aspects of peace talks, but there’s a long road ahead for the negotiations, UN envoy Alexander Downer said yesterday.

He was speaking after a working dinner with President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu at the residence of the UN’s Chief of Mission, Lisa Buttenheim,  in the UN Protected Area in Nicosia.

The leaders, accompanied by their lead advisers, made no media statements after the two-hour dinner, which was held at Downer’s suggestion.

“There was a very good meeting today,” Downer told newsmen. He said the leaders discussed issues pertaining to international treaties.

Spokesman defends AKEL ‘wage grab’

2011-04-15

OPPOSITION DISY yesterday suggested there was a huge ethical matter regarding communist AKEL’s practice of taking the earnings of its MPs and ministers and paying them a party salary instead.

DISY said government officials should be loyal to the people, not the party, while the government retorted that this was essentially a non-issue, and part of DISY’s effort to avoid taking a stance on the bigger problems facing society.

“There is a huge matter of political ethics,” DISY spokesman Haris Georgiades said. “It is Cypriot citizens who employ state officials. All state officials are answerable to the people, from the president to the last mayor, and not AKEL’s central committee.”

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.