Demo to protest road tax rise, bad roads in north

A protest will take place on Wednesday in the north over the steep rises in road taxes, while the bad state of roads remains the same.

According to daily Afrika, around 30,000 people have expressed an interest in attending the protest taking place in Nicosia in the afternoon at the bus terminal.

The protest is being organised by a Facebook group that call themselves ‘No roads, no road tax.’ Their grievance is the sorry state of many roads in the north and the problems faced when it rains, while at the same time rises have been announced on several taxes, including road tax.

Road tax had been increased between 30 and 35 per cent.

“It’s not only a matter of paying road tax or not now. We do have more problems like road safety,” disgruntled driver Cemal Edipoglu told the Cyprus Mail.

This increase, he said, was an attempt to create an illusion that by paying more everything will be solved. “On the contrary, unless the government or politicians find a way to ensure road safety and other concerns on traffic, this last move won’t make any sense”.

‘Transport minister’ Tolga Atakan said on Monday that a number of roadworks were underway for which 140m Turkish lira (€21m) is required but they currently have available only 22m.

He also said that 85per cent of his ‘ministry’s’ budget goes on salaries.

Head of the Democratic Party and former ‘finance minister’ Serdar Denktash said on social media on Tuesday that if they want to have roads, there must be salary deductions, arguing there was no other way.