PRESIDENT Tassos Papadopoulos yesterday announced a new surprise social package worth some £75 million, which his political opponents have dubbed an election panic measure.
The seven-point package is the latest in a string of money-back measures announced by the government that include VAT reductions in some sectors, tax cuts on heating fuel and increased benefits.
Papadopoulos said that until now the government has spent £250 million on social cohesion packages.
Top of the new list, which was approved by the cabinet yesterday and which will be voted on at parliament today, is a further reduction on heating fuel tax from 7.3 cents per litre to 1.2 cents per litre for the months December March.
It was only two months ago the same tax fell from 11.3 cents per litre to 7.3 cents and only three weeks since Finance Minister Michalis Sarris said there would be no further cuts in heating fuel taxes.
Others to benefit will be around 100,000 pensioners whose income is less than £500 a month. They will receive a one-off payment of £300. Those whose monthly income is more than £500 but less than £700 will receive a one-off payment of £100.
Large families will see a ten per cent increase in benefits and National Guardsmen from large families will be given an extra £10 per month. These had been a demand from the large families association, Papadopoulos said.
The remainder of the money, around £30 million will be used to set up a social welfare council, Papadopoulos said when announcing the package. He said the measures were a gesture of appreciation to the public as the island adopted the euro on January 1. It was also to mark the success his administration had made with the economy. The government recently announced that 2007 would see a budget surplus, of 1.5 percent of GDP, instead of a deficit as initially forecasted.
“Our admission to the eurozone has been made with joint efforts and sacrifices. The government had repeatedly stated it would show its appreciation with targeted measures of social support,” Papadopoulos said yesterday.
“We reversed the negative course of the economy that we inherited. We decreased the public debt and wiped out the budget deficit and we achieved our target of joining the euro zone, without any additional taxation or sacrificing our social policy in the slightest.”
Papadopoulos said for his government, the success of economic policy was not an end in itself but a way to better the life of the citizens.
“This is what we said and this is what we have done,” he said. “And each time we achieved our objectives we shared the profits of our policy with three packages of social measures that surpass £250 million.”
While Papadopoulos received the full backing of DIKO and the Greens, the parties that support him, his detractors said it was clear he was running scared on polling numbers.
Loucas Fourlas, the spokesman for DISY presidential candidate Ioannis Kasoulides wondered where these measures worth millions came from, given that only days ago Papadopoulos’ ministers were saying the economy could not afford any more social packages,
“It looks like total electoral panic,” he said, adding that Papadopoulos was suddenly realising he might not make it to the second round of the February elections. This had made them lose all seriousness and reliability, he said. “People were not born yesterday.
Independent candidate Costas Themistocleous made a similar statement but he said Papadopoulos must have realised that he could no longer use the Annan plan to influence Cypriot voters “so he has chosen another method,” he said.
DISY deputy Lefteris Christoforou attributed the new package to a fall in the percentage of the vote. He wondered why it took the government five years to realise there were social problems and that some Cypriots had economic needs.
“Tassos Papadopoulos took no measures for hundreds thousands of wage earners and particularly for the 135,000 who earn less than £10,000 annually,” he said.
“This country needs a president who will be on the side of the people from the first day and not occasionally, casually or during a pre-election period.”
AKEL’s Nicos Katsourides the meaning of announcing a social package 74 days before an election spoke for itself.
“It also shows that the clear increase in popularity of Demetris Christofias in the polls gives a clear clue of the confusion and concern of the Papadopoulos camp,” he said.
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