THE STAND-off between the Commerce Ministry and petrol station operators over Monday’s government order capping fuel prices continued yesterday, following unanimous decisions by the five district committees of operators’ association.
President of POVEK’s petrol station operators’ section, Stefanos Stefanou, said his members’ main demand now is that the estimated €150,000-200,000 cost of the price-cap for the eight days covered by the order should be borne by the oil companies, whose wholesale prices to the station operators are determining the price at the pump.
Stefanou repeated his association’s position that they were “ready from the very first to talk to the Minister so as to find a way out of the problem”, but once again suggested that both the government order and the strike action would need to be withdrawn simultaneously.
He added: “I have been in Nicosia since yesterday, standing next to the phone. As soon as we are invited to a meeting we can get together.”
Petrol Station Owners’ Association head Pambinos Charalambous said that the retail price-cap of 95 cents a litre for 95-octane petrol, 97 cents per litre for 98-octane petrol, and 87.5 cents per litre for low-sulphur diesel represented a 45 per cent cut in the petrol stations’ gross profit, when the real problem was high wholesale prices.
Charalambous said: “If the minister wanted to cap prices, he should have capped wholesale prices as well, so that we are all covered.”
He added that if the law did not allow for this, then it was the minister’s responsibility to take the appropriate measures to avoid “a situation that we all regret”.
Commerce and Tourism Minister Antonis Paschalides held a series of meetings yesterday morning with the heads of the oil companies in an attempt to resolve the situation, but no agreement was reached.
EKO-Hellenic Petroleum Managing Director Akis Pegasiou said that the government’s price-capping order was against the law. He said such orders are only allowed in situations where increases in retail prices are “significant and excessive”, and questioned whether “the difference of one cent between the price-cap and the previous price” was excessive, especially “during a period when global prices are rising”.
Pegasiou added that the next consignment of petrol expected to arrive in the island in around eight days’ time will also be more expensive, which can only result in a worse situation than exists now. He put this down to high transportation costs and the unfavourable movement in the dollar-euro exchange rate.
Oil and derived products are traded worldwide in US dollars, which Pegasiou said had risen 10.0 per cent against the euro since January, resulting in the wholesale price of petrol going up “$50 per tonne in the last ten days”. He added that, roughly speaking, the cost of importing petrol had risen 7.0 per cent since January, but retail prices had only gone up 3.5 per cent.
The number of petrol stations open yesterday dropped to 33 according to the Commerce Ministry’s list – timed at 12.38pm – compared to 46 on Tuesday. Of these, 14 were in the Nicosia district, 14 in Limassol district, three in Larnaca and two in Famagusta district.
However, lunchtime reports by state broadcaster CyBC referred to just two petrol stations open in Limassol town itself, compared to seven on the Ministry’s list, and only two in Larnaca compared to three on the official list. When asked by reporters, Stefanou said he could not confirm who was shut or open with great certainty, but he was sure the petrol stations that had opened were run directly by the oil companies rather than his members.
The reason for the drop in these numbers is not clear, but motorists have told the Mail that by yesterday morning, petrol stations on Tuesday’s list of those working normally had run out of stocks. One knock-on effect was that traffic ground to a halt in central Nicosia yesterday, as the normal flow was impeded by queues of motorists waiting to fill up at those petrol stations that were open.
Another effect, with more serious implications, is the impact on recent tourist arrivals to the island. The Cyprus Association of Hire-car Owners issued a statement yesterday that said many tourists in all districts are either returning hire-cars early after failing to find petrol, or simply refusing to collect pre-booked cars.
However, the petrol-station operators appear to be fulfilling their pledge to service emergency vehicles. A Cyprus Mail reader told us that when he passed one Petrolina station in the centre of Paphos yesterday afternoon, he saw six police cars, four police motorbikes and a Civil Defence vehicle queuing up at the pumps.
When he went back and asked one of the two pairs of police officers standing guard at the petrol-station’s entrance and exit whether he could join the queue, he was told: “You can get petrol in Limassol”.
Our reader told us: “I can understand that the emergency services being allowed to fill up, but I need petrol to go to work, too.”
EDEK MP and House Commerce Committee member Georgos Varnavas announced yesterday that he had already given instructions on behalf of his party for the drafting of a legal amendment that would empower the Commerce Ministry to issue orders capping wholesale as well as retail prices.
House Commerce Committee chairman and DISY vice-president Lefteris Christoforou said that his party would support such an amendment.
However, any such measure would have to have the prior approval of the relevant EU institutions, which is by no means certain.
