OPPOSITION DISY yesterday accused the government of preparing a raft of tax reforms that would be imposed immediately after the Euro elections.
Speaking at a news conference, deputy Maria Kyriacou and Euro election candidate Manthos Mavromatis, charged that the government was preparing measures on three levels that would be imposed right after the June 13 elections.
The two members of the opposition said there would be “a storm of tax measures, cuts in social grants and a decrease in development projects”.
“While planning these unbearable and anti-popular measures, which would literally bring Cypriot citizens to their knees, they are being concealed by the government, which aims in imposing them immediately after June 13,” DISY said.
DISY said there was a serious issue of political ethics and reminded that last Wednesday President Tassos Papadopoulos attributed the information leak concerning the measures to a “foolish civil servant”.
However, in an interview to a daily newspaper, Papadopoulos said that “only foolish people would not impose taxes”.
“We repeat that we will stand next to the citizens and will not accept any measures that will decrease the Cypriots’ living standards,” Kyriacou and Mavromatis said.
In his interview, Papadopoulos stressed that if the tax-collecting measures did not have any results then the only way out would be taxation.
Asked how he planned to tackle the high public deficit, Papadopoulos was clear: “There is no other measure; it is taxation.
“There is salvation through taxation and only fools would not impose taxes,” Papadopoulos said.
He added that it was not the government’s intention to impose taxes but that did not mean that the conditions would not be created.
Before imposing any new taxes, the government would proceed with various measures, which include collecting delayed taxes worth £235 million.
At the same time the state was planning to provide title deeds to 65,000 owners of apartments who did not have any.
In this way the government would collect eight per cent on the value of the flat in the form of transfer fees.
But perhaps the most important challenge would be cutting the public wage bill, which this year reached 42 per cent of the budget – the highest in Europe.
The president assured there would not be any personnel dismissals but certain positions left vacant due to retirement would not be filled and many civil servants would be moved to other departments if necessary.
Trade and Industry Minister George Lillikas yesterday rejected the claims made by DISY, noting that there were better ways for them to be convincing.
“No taxes will be imposed, I deny this. No fuel taxes are on the cards,” noted Lillikas, attributing the DISY claims to “irresponsible partisan politics”.
