AKEL called for a permanent five per cent VAT rate on electricity and an end to double taxation on fuel as it protested outside the Finance Ministry on Monday evening, demanding emergency measures to tackle high prices and support households.
“We are here today to demand that the government do the obvious: take measures to protect society from high prices,” AKEL General Secretary Stefanos Stefanou told the protesters, calling on the government to act immediately.
Stefanou accused the government of watching passively while other EU countries acted decisively with immediate, targeted measures, saying Nikos Christodoulides’s government had declared only that it was “monitoring the situation”.
“People did not elect Christodoulides president to watch the problems, but to deal with them,” he said.
The nine-point package Stefanou set out also includes a wider social tariff for electricity, one-off targeted help with heating costs ahead of the winter, and a programme to upgrade the energy performance of older homes to cut energy costs for good.
On fuel, AKEL wants tighter controls and greater transparency on prices alongside the end of double taxation. It is also calling for road tax to be halved in 2027 for the poorest households, and for a transport allowance for low and middle-income households with children.
The party is also seeking targeted help with interest rates and rents for households facing serious difficulties, Guaranteed Minimum Income payments adjusted to today’s cost of living, and basic rights and decent conditions for all workers, especially those on the minimum wage.
Funding
Stefanou said the cost of fuel, electricity, heating, housing and basic goods was squeezing low and middle-income households in particular, while swelling state revenue. He said the state had collected about 200 million euros more from VAT and excise duties so far, and that very little of the extra money was going back to society.
“The government is more interested in images than in the people of our country,” he said.
“‘But where will we find the money?’ That is the permanent excuse of those in power every time AKEL demands measures,” Stefanou said. He said the package could be funded from the extra tax revenue that rising prices bring in, by taxing windfall profits and high-value property, and from the money the state collects from emissions.
“What is missing so far is the government’s political will,” he said.
“These measures will not make high prices disappear. But they will give real breathing space to thousands of families,” Stefanou said, urging the government at least to discuss the proposals rather than brush them aside.
