Anastasiades takes VAT cuts on fuel and electricity to supreme court

President Nicos Anastasiades has filed a petition to the Supreme Court related to two laws concerning the reduction of VAT on fuel and electricity, following the opinion of the Attorney-general Giorgos Savvides.

Government spokesman Marios Pelekanos told the Cyprus News Agency that Anastasiades has also signed the law to suspend foreclosures until the end of October.

Pelekanos explained that, according to the AG’s opinion, the two laws on VAT reduction violate European Union regulations and violate the principle of separation of powers between executive and legislative.

He noted that these pieces of legislation drastically reduce the state’s revenues, affecting the government’s fiscal policy, which already implements specific measures, horizontally, to cover households and businesses, but are also targeted, for the benefit of the most vulnerable citizens. Pelekanos stressed that these are measures with a budgetary impact of €350 million.

On August 2, at an extraordinary meeting of the House plenum, lawmakers had rejected by a majority, Anastasiades’ referrals concerning the proposal to abolish double taxation on fuel, the proposal to abolish VAT on emissions on the price of electricity and the law on the suspension of foreclosures for three months.