Overdue road tax could be paid in instalments

By Constantinos Psillides
Car owners who haven’t paid their road tax would get the option to do so in 12 monthly instalments, according to a bill discussed on Thursday at the House Transport Committee.
An initial provision stipulating that people would get a 30 or 15 per cent discount for paying late taxes was removed by Troika technocrats who strongly disagreed, pointing out it would be unfair on those who had paid their road tax on time.
The Troika settled with not including any penalties for late payment.
The provision was requested by the Road Transport Department (RTD), whose officials said they had received a large number of requests from people who wanted to settle their road tax debt but could not afford the full amount.
According to Committee head, DIKO MP Antonis Antoniou, the goal is to facilitate payment for €35m owed in road tax by 65,000 car owners.
Over 80,000 cars are immobilised due to owners not paying their taxes.
DISY MP Andreas Michaelides noted that this problem dates back to 2007. “Thousands of cars are either immobilised or go around with no licence and insurance. We believe that this bill will put an end to this. We urged our fellow MPs to politicise this issue”.
Michaelides’ plea fell on deaf ears, since AKEL MP Andreas Fakontis accused DISY and the government of acting as the “obedient instrument of Troika”.
“The government didn’t even put up a fight, didn’t enter into a negotiation. They just folded and gave in to the Troika’s demands. The AKEL parliamentary group suggested that paying in instalments should extend to everyone, to make it easier to pay road tax. If the government doesn’t include this provision in the bill, AKEL will introduce an amendment,” Fakontis said.

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.