With government actions, the silos that exist and are in working condition should be utilised, AKEL Secretary General Stefanos Stefanou said on Sunday, so that we can have strategic grain reserves.
At the same time, he said, prices should be controlled as far as possible, which have already started to rise and will rise more because of the situation with Ukraine. He added that instead of simply watching in apathy the situation turning into a scourge for the people, the government needs to take measures and AKEL, he added, is proposing very concrete measures.
In statements after a visit to the Anthoupoli market, he said that AKEL had a meeting with the POVEK, the KEBE and next week a meeting with the OEB, because the main issue is accuracy.
On the economy, he said that in the meetings they discuss economic issues and AKEL's proposal regarding the need to formulate a new development model of the economy characterised by sustainability, depth and balance, which unfortunately does not exist today, he said.
In this way, he said, we can fortify the Cypriot economy from any negative developments taking place internationally.
Focusing on accuracy, he said that AKEL has been highlighting the issue to the government for many months but does not seem to understand the problem that exists, the size of it and how many people are really suffering and pressured by the problem of accuracy.
He said that AKEL was making concrete, feasible, effective, easily implementable proposals such as the proposal to reduce VAT on electricity from 19% to 9% but said that while it was passed by a large majority in Parliament, the President sent the law to the Supreme Court questioning its constitutionality. We believe that the government if it really wants to help the people should bring back the law, he said.
Also, he said, AKEL proposes the abolition of double taxation on fuel while the fee paid by consumers on electricity bills for renewable energy should be ended "since Cyprus, due to the government's incompetence, pays tens of millions of euros for pollutants."
On the grain issue, he said the government wrongly dissolved the Grain Committee. What we are saying is that the Government should take action to utilize the silos that exist, that are in working condition, to come to an understanding with the traders who now have the grain situation in their hands so that we can also have strategic stocks and see how we can control to the extent possible the prices which have already started to rise and will rise more because of the situation with Ukraine.
The message, he said, that he wants to send is that this government has the political responsibility to protect people from the accuracy and at the same time it has the moral responsibility to do so because a big share of the responsibility for the increase in the price of basic goods in fuel and electricity belongs to the incompetence of this government which did not even take care of bringing natural gas for power generation purposes to Cyprus, nor to make the necessary infrastructure to ensure energy security in Cyprus, nor in relation to fuels to deal with cartels and oligopolies, nor in relation to grain issues.
Therefore, he added, instead of simply watching in apathy as the situation becomes a scourge for the world, the government needs to take action. We are proposing very concrete measures.
Asked about the Finance Minister's tweet yesterday, the AKEL Secretary General said I would say to Mr Petridis that instead of trying to give lessons in high geopolitics, which he is now apparently discovering, he should do the job he should have done long ago. It is Mr Petrides who said a few months ago that there is no problem with accuracy, that it is a transient phenomenon. They did not take any measures to deal with the accuracy nor did they prepare Cyprus in case there would be such negative developments as the war in Ukraine is now. Petridis on behalf of the Government to answer how the Government of the Coalition is fortifying Cyprus in relation to what is happening around us and what it will claim from Europe for the impact that any sanctions will have on the European economies and what we are asking for as European solidarity to protect the Cypriot economy.
On AKEL-DIKO meeting
Asked about AKEL's contacts with DIKO, Stefanos Stefanou said that next Tuesday he will have a meeting with the President of the Democratic Party, Nicolas Papadopoulos. It is the realisation of both parties that the country has reached the bottom and we need to change, to end the rule of Synergism and to create the conditions for a progressive change in the governance of the country. The subject of the debate is this, he added.
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