Value added tax on fuel has been zeroed in the north to combat price rises amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the north’s ‘energy minister’ Olgun Amcaoglu said on Thursday.

“The government is closely monitoring the process, taking the necessary steps, and has implemented certain regulations to protect consumers,” he told the north’s Tak news agency.

In addition to the zeroing of VAT on fuel, he said that the amount of clean profit which importers and petrol stations can take from retail sales has been capped at 7.25TL (14 cents) per litre. Prior to Thursday, the standard VAT rate in the north had been 16 per cent.

Nonetheless, he did say that “updates to pricing may be considered in the future depending on developments”, and stressed that “this ongoing process should not be made a subject of political debate”.

Fuel prices in the north are set centrally by a commission comprised of representatives of the ruling coalition and of the two large petrol station chains, Cyprus Turkish Petroleum (K-Pet), and Alpet.

The most recent price rises were announced last week, with those increases the second of the month so far

At present, 95 octane petrol costs 57.12TL (€1.12) per litre, 98 octane petrol costs 58.12TL (€1.14) per litre, diesel costs 56TL (€1.10) per litre, and kerosene costs 67.43TL (€1.33) per litre.

Olgun Amcaoglu

Earlier this week, ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel had said that given the ongoing conflict he cannot rule out further fuel price rises.

“We cannot say that fuel price increases have stopped. They will stop when the war ends,” he told Genc TV, adding that it is “unclear” when the conflict will end, and that his ruling coalition is “working hard to prevent people from being crushed under the weight of price increases”.

“Yes, we increased fuel prices twice [this month], but look back. We did it after a long time,” he said.

He added that the coalition has been taking “measures to mitigate the impact on the rising cost of living”, before offering reassurances that he has no intentions of also raising electricity prices.

Amcaoglu had on Tuesday offered reassurances that the north will not run out of fuel, telling the Turkish Cypriot legislature that it has 52 million litres of reserves available to it.

“We have a fuel stock of up to 52 million litres, at the stations, with the suppliers, and with the tankers on the way,” he said, before adding that the amount of fuel consumed per month in the north amounts to around 40 million litres.