More foreigners than Cypriot applied for offset grant

MORE foreigners than Cypriots have applied for the offset grant set aside for low-income groups, the head of the Citizen’s Bureau in Nicosia said yesterday.

Yesterday was the deadline to submit an application for the grant, which aims at offsetting this year’s 5.0 per cent hike in VAT on food and medicine.

A total of €20 million was set aside for the scheme for low-income groups.

“From every 30 people who applied, there might have been one Cypriot,” said Bureau head Lambros Papalambrianou, who said that applicants had been pouring in at the rate of 200 an hour. Queues stretched down the pavement, he said.

Some of the applicants are from other EU countries, some from third countries and even some Turkish Cypriots applied. Those eligible to apply must have lived legally and continuously in the Republic of Cyprus for five years.

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.