Cyprus’ income from emissions allowances will fall by around €30 million next year, the agriculture ministry disclosed on Friday.
The figures were disclosed ahead of discussions in parliament over the ministry’s budget, with Minister Maria Panayiotou explaining in a letter to the House finance committee that her ministry’s overall income would fall by a total of 11 per cent, largely because of the reduction in income from emissions allowances.
In total, she said, her ministry expects to make €224.3 million in revenue in 2025, down from a projected €252.4 million this year.
On the matter of emissions allowances, she said her ministry expects that the average price per unit of allowance will fall from €63 to €57 next year, though this drop will be slightly offset by the fact that the number of units to be sold will rise from just over 1.4 million this year to a little shy of 1.75 million in 2025.
With this in mind, she said the price per unit is variable, as the units are sold at auctions, and that as such, this forecast may be revised.
Additionally, she said, her ministry forecasts a €6 million reduction in its income from the sale of government water resources.
This, she said, is due to the fact that her ministry has projected that income from the sale of government water resources next year will be “consistent” with this year’s figures, whereas last year, it had also budgeted for back payments from previous years’ sales.
In total, the agriculture ministry has proposed a budget of €516.7m, up from last year’s approved budget of €400.8m. The ministry has gone over its originally allocated budget this year, having spent a total of €456.9m, with most of that excess having come through the purchase of water from desalination.
In total, 28 per cent of this budget will be allocated to the ministry’s payroll and staff benefits, 40 per cent to other regular costs, and 24 per cent to development expenditure.
This budget does not include any of the projects to be co-financed by the ministry which fall under the authority of Cyprus’ directorate-general for development, which cost €39m last year and are set to cost €35m next year.
The directorate-general for development is run by the finance ministry and has no relation with the European Commission’s former directorate-general for development (Devco), which has been renamed as the directorate-general for international partnerships (DG Intpa).
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