The Government is considering new targeted support measures for vulnerable groups due to the termination of the horizontal reduction of the consumption tax on fuels next Sunday.
Final decisions, primarily concerning fuels, are expected to be made by next week, at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers, given that by then the measures will be finalised.
Yesterday, President of the Republic Nikos Christodoulides, during the Council of Ministers meeting, called on ministers to submit proposals regarding the measures.
President Christodoulides, addressing the ministers, noted that “it is important that we have taken two packages of measures, but we need to look at the expiring measures and also consider additional measures. I want to hear your suggestions.”
According to information from Phileleftheros, the new measures will mainly focus on the issue of fuels, without excluding the implementation of measures in other sectors, through one-off support.
The Ministry of Energy has already submitted its proposals, which focus on targeted support for the economically vulnerable social strata of the population receiving financial assistance from the state.
Specifically, the possibility of support being directed towards recipients of Minimum Guaranteed Income, large families, low pensioners, single-parent families, etc., is being examined.
As Phileleftheros informs, the Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare, will prepare a relevant proposal. The Ministry of Finance will examine the economic aspect of the issue, while the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare will proceed with categorising the beneficiaries.
The provision of a credit card, following the model applied in Greece, was recently deemed technically unfeasible for Cyprus. What is being considered is the provision of some allowance or the crediting of an account for the beneficiaries.
Minister of Finance Makis Keravnos expressed hope that by the end of the month, there would be some announcements in this direction, emphasising that the Ministry of Finance is in the stage of deliberation and study for targeted compensatory measures.
“Let me remind you that in the previous package of measures to tackle inflation, for some categories such as single-parent families and vulnerable groups, middle classes, the one-off grant measure was applied. Therefore, there is an overall approach to the whole issue, and there will be a relevant announcement in the coming days,” he stated.
Keravnos reminded of the recommendations of the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and other organisations against the implementation of horizontal measures.
He reiterated that in Cyprus, the price of petrol and diesel is among the lowest in the European Union.
