CyTA pension fund renews government loan

By George Psyllides

THE state telecoms (CyTA) pension fund managing committee decided on Tuesday to renew a €100 million loan it granted the government at the end of 2012.

CyTA chairman Christos Patsalides said the loan was renewed for another three months.

Meanwhile, the respective committee at the electricity company (EAC) postponed a meeting scheduled for Tuesday to discuss whether to renew their loan of the same amount.

Workers oppose a renewal but stress that it has nothing to do with the recent approval of a bill that paves the way for the privatization of semi-government organisations including CyTA and EAC.

The meeting was rescheduled for Thursday pending the ratification of the appointment of the new EAC chairman Othon Theodoulou.

Theodoulou has asked the workers’ unions to accept the renewal for a month, as per a finance ministry request.

The two semi-state organisations, and the ports authority, had agreed to lend cash out of their employees’ pension funds in December 2012 following stark warnings of imminent default issued by the administration of former president Demetris Christofias.

“If these additional financing needs are not secured we will be talking about a state default in the next few days,” finance ministry permanent secretary Christos Patsalides had then told the House Finance Committee.

The ports authority had put up around €20 million.

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