DISY is seeking to overturn a contentious amendment allowing deputies serving since 1991 to buy high-powered duty free cars.
It emerged last week that a group of MPs had managed to amend a 1992 law so they could buy such cars.
Under the law as it stood, deputies were allowed to purchase duty free cars of up to 2,000 cc petrol or 2,500 cc diesel. The law also granted deputies serving since 1991 the right to buy just one car of bigger capacity each without paying any duties.
But Politis last week revealed that a group of veteran deputies had introduced an amendment to the existing law “through unclear procedures”, allowing those serving as MPs for the past 11 years to buy more such cars.
The House has admitted that the amendment in question passed through Parliament in March with the Finance Ministry’s consent, insisting however that it only affected deputies who were still ‘owed’ a luxury duty free car.
The retroactive nature of the law means that the deputies in question are now owed money by the state for duties they have submitted to buy luxury cars.
DISY yesterday announced its intention to table a proposal invalidating the amendment in question.
DISY deputy Prodromos Prodromou charged the provision had been introduced by AKEL and DIKO without the knowledge of the other parties.
He further described the amendment as “non-approved” insisting that it had passed through Parliament through unclear procedures.
“My party has never positioned itself on such an amendment which we oppose anyway,” he said, adding that DISY wanted to exclude it from the existing law.
House Finance Committee chairman Marcos Kyprianou of DIKO yesterday insisted that Parliament had been briefed on the provision by the House director.
“No deputy expressed any objections so it was not deemed necessary for the parties to position themselves on the amendment,” he argued.
Kyprianou, however, admitted that procedures of this kind should be made more transparent.
Proposals are not always included in committee reports.
“This practice must change and in the future parliamentary procedures will be more transparent,” he promised.
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