The new price hikes in fuel have affected the island’s businesses, CCCI and OEB announced on Friday, emphasizing the high cost of transport of the fuel in Cyprus. The two organizations recommended that the government should reduce the consumer tax for the businesses and proceed to the enforcement of generous measures for the production of energy via renewable sources (sun, air, etc).

In its announcement, CCCI referred to the competitiveness of the Cyprus economy after the increase in the cost of fuel products and urged the Commerce Ministry to reduce the consumer tax. The new price hikes have pushed power prices up and give rise to new salary increases via the automatic wage indexing.

The CCCI also stressed the need to protect competitiveness in every way.

OEB, on the other hand, announced that the new increase in the price of fuel push the cost of production for the businesses that use fuel up.

“Cyprus is highly affected by the new fuel prices due to the high cost of transport (of the fuel). We have to make an effort for a cheaper delivery of crude oil”, OEB Deputy General Manager, Costas Christofides stated.

According to Commerce Minister, Giorgos Lillikas, the government and the Commerce Ministry will deal with the energy issue with both short-term and long-term special measures. OEB has requested the provision of a generous plan by the state for the use of renewable energy sources.