The holding company of the north’s Ercan (Tymbou) airport, T&T, posted a loss of more than 1 billion TL (€29.8 million) for 2023, and as a result, did not pay any taxes, the north’s tax department revealed on Wednesday.

Other companies which posted large losses and paid no tax in the north included Vodafone Mobile Operations, trading as Telsim, which recorded a loss of over 186 million TL (€4.9m), and Proyap, which has frequently won tenders to build roads in the north and posted a loss of over 56 million TL (€1.5m).

The Karpaz Gate Marina, which recently changed ownership, also posted a loss of over 54 million TL (€1.4m) and paid no tax, while the north’s virtual airline Fly Kibris posted a loss of over 45 million TL (€1.2m).

A virtual airline is an airline which has outsourced as many possible operational and business functions as it can, but still maintains effective control of its core business. Fly Kibris’ aircraft are operated by Turkish airlines Freebird Airlines and Air Anka.

T&T’s large loss and lack of tax paid comes after the north’s electricity authority Kib-Tek’s workers’ trade union El-Sen leader Ahmet Tugcu said the company is not paying the airport’s electricity bill.

He said earlier this month that T&T are only paying enough to service their debt to Kib-Tek and are still not paying their electricity bills, despite a contract having been signed between T&T, Kib-Tek and the ‘government’ to ensure that the debt be serviced, and future bills be paid.

In June, Tugcu said T&T’s debt to Kib-Tek had eached 92 million TL (€2.6m).

As a result, he said, “we are now demanding that the contract be cancelled as soon as possible, and the entire debt be collected”.

However, he said, Kib-Tek was given “political instructions” to not cut the power supply to the airport by politicians from ruling coalition parties the National Unity Party (UBP) and the Democratic Party (DP).

On the other end of the tax spectrum, Is Bank was the largest taxpayer in the north, contributing nearly 500 million TL (€13 million) in taxes.

Hotel and casino chain owner Merit paid the second largest amount of tax at 413 million TL (€10.8m), despite posting a loss of 347 million TL (€9m).

Energy company Aksa were the sixth-largest taxpayers, paying 155 million TL (€4m) in tax and posting a 659 million TL (€17m) profit for the year.