The Plenary Session of the Parliament unanimously approved with 38 votes in favour the budget of the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (ATIC) for 2023, which provides for total expenditure of €575,722,580 and total revenue of €386,752,300, mainly from the provision of services and products.
The budgeted expenditure for the year 2023 shows an increase of 32.5% compared to the year 2022, which is mainly due to the Authority's development programme, as the Chairman of Cyta's Board of Directors, Michael Ioannidis, explained to CNA.
At the same time, there is an increase in expenditure due to the provision for the implementation of an early retirement plan, to the granting of increments to staff, to the increased provision for hourly staff due to an increase in the tariff allowance and working hours, to the increased cost of electricity, to new actions aimed at increasing sales of the "Cytavision" service, to returns to telecommunications organisations, as well as to the purchase of equipment for resale.
The budgeted costs for the year 2023 relate to staff salaries and other benefits (€158,889,360), regular expenses other than salaries and other benefits (€175,042,720), capital expenditure (€99,455,500), third-party projects for hire (€7,270.000), investments (€106,465,000), contingencies (€5,600,000), pension fund liability (€23,000,000).
Based on the profit and loss account for the year 2023, a pre-tax surplus of €12.8 million and an after-tax surplus of €10.5 million are projected, compared to €46.7 million and €39.4 million for the year 2022, respectively.
Regarding ATHK's liabilities to the Pension Fund, according to a more recent actuarial study of the Employees' Pension Plan of the organisation, an actuarial funding deficit of €132.9 million is shown as of 31 December 2021, compared to €177.2 million as of 31 December 2020. Therefore, following a decision of the Board of Directors of ATK, a provision for a payment of €23 million was included in the budget, as well as an adjustment of the employer contribution to 2.8% of salaries, with a repayment period of 6.3 years, instead of 8.6 years as decided on the basis of a previous actuarial study.
Source: CNA
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