THE LATEST round of rises in the price of heating fuel has sparked a small-scale popular revolt around the island. People who live in the mountains and use their central heating systems for six months of the year have been up in arms since Thursday, when the last price hike was announced by the government.
Over the last few days they have staged small-scale protests, but they have pledged to hold bigger demonstrations in Nicosia soon to air their grievances. They consider the annual £200 heating benefit offered by the government to residents of the mountain villages as derisory, seeing as their heating bill for the winter months is likely to exceed £2,000. This is more than double what they were paying two years ago.
But the protests have not been restricted to mountain-folk. Farmers from the plains have also joined in, complaining they would have trouble making ends meet as a result of the latest rises. One morning radio show, which opened its telephone lines to the public, was inundated with calls from angry citizens – pensioners, manual labourers, shop assistants and farmers – both on Friday and yesterday. All said the same thing – it was impossible to make ends meet after the latest fuel price hikes and demanded some action from the state. Nothing constructive was said, which was understandable given that there are no easy answers.
The government, which has come under strong criticism for the latest price hikes, has tried to argue that the protests were politically motivated, orchestrated by the opposition party DISY. This spin was far from convincing, given the spontaneity and scale of the protests.
In reality, the fuel price hike acted as a catalyst. Citizens began venting frustration that had been building over the last year or so as a result of spiralling prices. The cost of living has been on an upward path for quite some time now, eroding living standards and forcing belt-tightening in a large number of households.
Unfortunately there are no easy answers. We had been accustomed to cheap, subsidised diesel for decades and now the subsidy has been abolished everyone is feeling the pinch. The only option to the government would be to give in to public pressure and reduce the tax (currently about 14 cents per litre) on diesel fuel used for heating, as it is permitted to do so by the EU.
This would pose serious practical difficulties because it would require the colouring of heating fuel to distinguish it from diesel sold for cars. The whole scheme would then have to be policed because people might buy diesel as heating fuel and use it for their cars. This has already been done for diesel used for farming purposes and, if press reports are accurate, is being exploited by many non-farmers.
Speculation has suggested the latest price hike should have been postponed until the end of April, but this easier said than done. The international price of crude oil has been rising, and the government’s debt to oil companies – which are guaranteed a specific profit margin – has been building up.
It is a no-win situation but it may have been wiser for the government to have allowed its debt to the oil companies to build up, rather than be faced with such a degree of justified public discontent.
