The House plenary on Thursday evening passed the 2025 budget for the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) with lawmakers grasping the opportunity to rail against the high cost of energy.
The state-run power utility will post a deficit of €495 million this fiscal year. Its balance sheet provides for €1.88 billion in expenditures and €1.39 in projected revenues.
On the House floor, Diko MP Panicos Leonidou listed a number of issues – the “anarchic” growth in permits for renewables, the continued operation of the outdated power station at Dhekelia, and the problematic LNG project at Vasiliko, now under scrutiny by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
For his part, Edek leader Marinos Sizopoulos said a succession of governments share blame for the high cost of electricity.
He said the price of greenhouse gas allowances has caused the final amount on electricity bills to double or almost triple, while 19 per cent VAT is charged on top of that – “a tax on the tax” as he called it.
Sizopoulos said VAT should be imposed only on the consumption part of the invoice rather than on the final amount after all the surcharges and fees are added. Otherwise, the government should reduce the current VAT rate on electricity – something he said the EU would allow.
Independent MP Alexandra Attalidou remarked that the high prices are “breaking people and businesses”. And she accused past governments as well as the EAC of incompetence in strategising.
People are now paying for these failures, she added.
Opposition Disy’s Kyriacos Hadjiyiannis pointed out that the advent of natural gas for power generation is still a long way off.
He said a number of applications from the private sector for energy storage projects and solar parks have been rejected.
The private sector must become more involved in order to increase supply and thus avoid potential power cuts in the summer.
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