Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 01-12-21

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cyprus-mail.com/>

Friday, December 21, 2001

CONTENTS

[01] Deputies vote to reintroduce fuel price mechanism

[02] Stock exchange agrees to suspend trading in GlobalSoft

[03] Police name attempted murder suspect

[04] Organic quota goes into law

[05] Rates stay unchanged

[06] We're not behind on tax reform, Vassiliou reassures deputies

[07] More rains will bring the wall down, antiquities chief warns

[08] CyTA slashes international and mobile rates

[09] Banks hammered on nervous market

[10] Unveiling the world's first mobile can crusher

[11] e-cards for Xmas?

[12] Dope found

[13] Leaked report shows hard drug use on the rise

[14] EAC pensioner 'tampered with meters for a fee'

[15] Deputies through out stabilisation fund proposal

[01] Deputies vote to reintroduce fuel price mechanism

PUMP prices will soon come down in line with falling oil prices, if the President does not veto a bill adopted by Parliament yesterday.

The House Plenum yesterday approved a proposal tabled by AKEL, DIKO and KISOS reintroducing the automatic pump price adjustment mechanism.

The mechanism adjusts petrol, diesel and kerosene prices in accordance with fluctuations in the price of crude, which is currently low.

The temporary mechanism had been in effect until October, when it ran out and the government decided not to renew it. For as long as it was in place, prices went up. When it expired in October, they ought to have come down for the first time, but the government chose not to put it up for renewal.

Without the mechanism, the government needs parliamentary approval to change pump prices.

The House Finance Committee last month called for the re-establishment of the automatic system, accusing the government of ripping off motorists by keeping prices high.

Addressing a plenary session yesterday, Finance Committee chairman Marcos Kyprianou of DIKO noted that the government had promised several years ago to draw up effective legislation to sort out the whole issue of petrol pricing.

" However, nothing has been done yet: that is why we have submitted this proposal,"Kyprianou said.

The proposal was approved by a slim majority: 25 deputies from AKEL, DIKO, KISOS and the Greens voted in favour of the bill and 20 from ruling DISY, junior coalition partners the United Democrats and right wing ADIK voted against it

DISY deputy Prodromos Prodromou warned the three opposition

parties that President Glafcos Clerides might veto the law as unconstitutional.

The mechanism guarantees petrol companies £2 million a month in state subsidies

" This is not in line with the Constitution The state cannot normally use taxpayers' money to help companies sell their product at a lower price, "Prodromou argued.

The argument did not wash with KISOS:

" We are not a legal body we are a political one therefore we are allowed to pass bills according to our political judgement,"countered the party's Doros Theodorou, adding that the state had not deemed the mechanism unconstitutional while it was in effect.

Commerce Minister Nicos Rolandis admitted earlier this week that Clerides had chosen to overlook the issue when the government passed the original law that expired in October.

But DISY's Prodromou argued it was unfair for those who did not drive, such as the elderly, to have to pay for those who did.

Stavros Evagorou of AKEL argued the reintroduction of the old system would counter the effects of the rise in fuel taxes included in the tax reform package pending parliamentary approval.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[02] Stock exchange agrees to suspend trading in GlobalSoft

The move came after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday said it had sent its file on GLC to the Attorney-general's office to determine whether there was a case for criminal proceedings.

The two regulatory bodies have been at loggerheads for over a week on whether to suspend GLC for investors' protection.

Last week, the SEC recommended the suspension of trading in GLC shares pending its investigation into alleged breaches of stock exchange regulations, but the CSE refused, saying there was insufficient evidence.

The SEC made its recommendation after examining a report by independent auditors into the company's stock market dealings. GlobalSoft has been trading under a separate category and on certain conditions regarding share price fluctuation for more than a month after being suspended from trading in early October. The company last week filed a £1 million suit against the SEC.

On Monday, the CSE board decided that GlobalSoft should continue trading under a separate category and subject to specific conditions, but again refused to suspend the company without more evidence.

But on Wednesday, the SEC released its report saying there had been possible violation of CSE regulations by the company with regard to the presentation of its financial statements in terms of a " correct and faithful picture of the company's affairs" .

GLC shares ended one cent down at 14 cents yesterday.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[03] Police name attempted murder suspect

The Syrian, who was shot from close distance, was yesterday still in a critical condition in Limassol hospital's intensive care unit.

The shooting happened at 9am outside the victim's home in the Kapsalos area.

Muhammad, or Angelos Terk, 24, was shot in the stomach with a hunting shotgun.

He had just arrived home, on the corner of Charitos and Kononos Streets, where he lives with his Greek Cypriot wife.

Terk had just got out of his car when he was ambushed by the gunman,

His wife, who was standing on the porch, rushed to him and tried to help.

While doctors were trying to save Terk's life, police patrol cars swept the area looking for the assailant, who was apparently identified by the victim's wife.

Police said yesterday they were looking for George Anastasiou from Trahoni.

Anastasiou is 1.75 metres tall, slim built with long black hair and green blue eyes.

He was last seen driving a white Mazda Familia, with registration numbers YR 260 or YE 820.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[04] Organic quota goes into law

Sofoclis Fittis of DIKO hailed the development, saying it meant healthier products and promised profits for farmers.

" Agriculture will get a shot in the arm as a large part of the organic production will be exported to Europe, where many consumers prefer this kind of products,"he said.

The deputy urged the government to go ahead with its plan to set up an Organic Production Council, which would co-ordinate the issue.

Green Party deputy George Perdikis claimed the paternity of the whole idea, boasting that the House had at last seen eye to eye with him.

But some of Perdikis' colleagues reacted angrily, arguing that " not everything happened thanks to Perdikis" .

The organic 'quota' is an EU requirement.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[05] Rates stay unchanged

"The board of the Central Bank adopted a recommendation by the monetary policy committee to leave rates unchanged," governor Afxentis Afxentiou told reporters.

In the past year, the bank has lowered rates on three occasions by a total of 1.50 percentage points.

The policy committee weighed up economic indicators and decided that a further rate cut was unwarranted, Afxentiou said.

"The situation will continue to be assessed on a monthly basis," he said.

The island's tourism-reliant economy is poised to record a gross domestic product growth of 3.5-3.9 per cent in real terms this year, while November year-on-year inflation slowed to 1.93 per cent.

But the outlook for 2002 tourism arrivals is unclear pending the January- March booking period.

" It is difficult to give an assessment. There are some good signs as the military operations in Afghanistan appear to be winding down... but it is difficult to say what the outlook is right now," Afxentiou said.

Tourism represents around 20 per cent of Cyprus's gross domestic product.

Parliament deregulated the interest rate regime just a year ago following pressure from the European Union. The island is a front-runner for membership and will be included in the next expansion wave. (R)

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[06] We're not behind on tax reform, Vassiliou reassures deputies

CYPRUS' chief EU negotiator George Vassiliou said yesterday that deputies' concerns the government had fallen by the wayside over deadlines to increase VAT were baseless.

The controversy broke out on Wednesday, after EU Chief Negotiator Leopold Maurer reportedly told the House Finance Committee that Brussels expected Cyprus to increase VAT from 10 to 13 per cent by the end of the year. If they didn't hold firm on that 'promise', then the island would be exposed in the eyes of the EU.

But the chairman of the committee, DIKO deputy Marcos Kyprianou, was left high and dry, claiming he had no idea that such a deadline had been agreed.

Fellow committee member, AKEL deputy George Lillikas, was quick to blame the government for sending ambiguous messages to the EU.

But Vassiliou said yesterday that the problems stemmed from a simple misunderstanding and insisted that everyone had been fully briefed about the situation.

The tax reform bill, tabled before Parliament in early November, included provision to increase VAT from 10 to 13 per cent.

The defence levy will be scrapped at the same time, before the rate is upped to the EU-required minimum of 15 per cent by the end of 2002.

Vassiliou said a separate VAT bill would only be drawn up if the tax reform bill had not been passed by the end of February.

He said a second bill would then be necessary to push through the VAT rise in order not to delay the closing of the tax and competition chapter.

" It's nothing serious if we move fast and close the issue,"Vassiliou told journalists.

Reassured that a December 2001 deadline wasn't obligatory, Kyprianou said yesterday the main problem was the government taking decisions without first informing the House.

Kyprianou said he was satisfied there was no compulsion to increase VAT to 13 per cent in January, only that Brussels would prefer to be informed of when the necessary rise would be implemented.

" We have been discussing tax reform and the increase in VAT with the Finance Ministry since January and on no occasion did they mention the issue of increasing VAT by the end of the year. The bill was submitted in early November, but there's no mention of a binding date [for increasing VAT]. It came as a surprise that while we believed we were ahead of a programme, we found out that we are behind,"he said.

" What interests us is that any increases in VAT are counterbalanced by some social policies,"he added.

" I'm not sure that'll happen in two months, but if we give the EU a specific date then they'll be satisfied,"Kyprianou finished.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[07] More rains will bring the wall down, antiquities chief warns

ANTIQUITIES Director Sophocles Hadjisavvas yesterday warned that unless work was allowed to resume to repair the Venetian wall at the Roccas bastion it was in danger of total collapse.

" If we don't take measures - and this it not a new story because I've been warning the United Nations for many years now that the wall will collapse - if the rain continues and the forecast says it will, then we will have a real problem."

A section of the old Venetian wall at the bastion opposite Paphos Gate collapsed earlier this month after heavy rains. The bastion marks the edge of the boundary between the UN buffer zone and north Nicosia, and the Turkish Cypriot regime has previously refused permission for the wall to be tampered with. An agreement reached to jointly repair the wall was reached last week but the Turkish side withdrew suddenly on Monday, leaving the work unfinished.

UNFICYP officials met on Tuesday with representatives of both sides to discuss the issue and established that the Turkish side was contesting where the ceasefire line began and ended. A new meeting was held on Wednesday, but UNFICYP could not be reached for comment yesterday to establish the outcome of the meeting.

" I don't know what is the issue is with the Turks,"Hadjisavvas said. " Some years ago they did some military work there undercover pretending it was a playground, so probably they don't want us to climb on the wall to do anything."

Under the initial plan, it was agreed the Greek Cypriot side would undertake repairs to the bottom half of the wall and the Turkish Cypriots would repair the top half. UNOPS was to pay for the cost of the renovation.

Hadjisavvas said the work could be completed without the co-operation of the Turkish side, if the UN offered protection to the antiquities workmen, since the face of the wall is actually within the buffer zone.

But he said he was waiting for the UN to come up with a solution.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[08] CyTA slashes international and mobile rates

CyTA said it had made drastic reductions in landline and mobile phone telephone rates, both for international and local calls, in line with its commitment to revise and reduce phone rates for consumers.

International calls will be slashed by up to 18 per cent from February 2002, with calls to Greece set at nine cents a minute peak time and seven cents off-peak, Britain and the US at 10 cents peak and eight cents off peak, and Germany slashed to 15 cents peak and 12 cents off-peak.

However, CyTA's Christmas bonus this year goes to all mobile users, as calls will be reduced by up to 44 per cent from today.

The SoEasy package will now cost 10 cents a local call. CyTAGSM users on the Infrequent Callers scheme will pay a £3 monthly subscription fee, and pay a rate of eight cents a minute. Standard Callers will pay a £5 subscription fee and calls will now be five cents a minute and Frequent Callers will pay a £9 subscription fee with three cents a minute calls.

The icing on the cake is the night-time scheme CyTA has introduced for all mobile phone users, except those on the SoEasy package. Between 10pm and 7am, all national calls will be charged at one cent per minute.

Text messages will now cost two cents per message for both mobile phone packages.

Attempts by CyTA to raise the cost of local calls and cut that of trunk calls to introduce a single national rate were blocked by parliament earlier this month.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[09] Banks hammered on nervous market

Trading opened at Wednesday's 132-point close and headed into a steep decline. A slight rebound to 131 points during mid-session failed to sustain any momentum and the all-share index closed at 129.4 points.

The blue chips FTSE/CySE index fell 2.2 per cent to 514 points while total volume for the day stood low at £5.7 million.

" What we witnessed today was a complete selling frenzy,"said one Nicosia broker. " The index was already fragile but holding on by a thread. Christmas on the trading floor isn't looking very merry from where we are standing."

The main banks came under heavy selling pressure, all three making the most- active list. Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank shed four cents each to end at £1.88 and £1.51 respectively, while Hellenic Bank dropped two cents to close at £0.90.

The banking sector ended 2.5 per cent in the red but insurance companies were hardest hit, the sub sector closing 5.1 per cent down while fish farms sustained the least damage, recording a drop of only 0.11 per cent.

Overall, 24 titles gained, compared to 84 decliners and 39 that closed unchanged.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[10] Unveiling the world's first mobile can crusher

The organisation, which recycles aluminium in order to buy medical equipment for the children's wards at the Makarios Hospital in Nicosia, hopes the machine will enable them to raise more money more quickly in the future.

A can sorter and baler have been mounted onto a lorry, which will roam the island to crush cans on the spot, in order to squeeze in as many as possible before transporting them back to central depots for export.

In January, the lorry will kick off in Nicosia. From February, it will tour other major towns to collect aluminium from a pre-designated location.

It'll then return to each place on a weekly or monthly basis, according to demand.

" This is a very exciting project, certainly a first in Cyprus and we think, probably, a first in the world,"Cans president Olga Demetriades said yesterday.

Since it was set up in 1990, Cans For Kids has collected more than 16 million cans, and donated equipment worth over £80,000 to the Makarios.

Yesterday, Green Line schools donated two syringe pumps worth £1,800 to the hospital, bought from the proceeds of cans the pupils had collected.

The charity also promotes the benefits of recycling by through educational visits to schools.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[11] e-cards for Xmas?

E-CHRISTMAS cards have not really taken root in Cyprus, according to retailers, despite reports that they are on the ascendancy the world over, and despite evidence of falling card sales on the high street.

International blue chip companies have made the switch to e-cards for the first time this year, citing the recession as a good time to cut back on overheads.

But retailers selling ordinary cards in Nicosia were unconvinced that profits were down because customers were abandoning traditional forms of seasons greetings.

The Woolworth's flagship store on Makarios Avenue in Nicosia did admit to selling fewer cards than normal, but put it down to increased competition on the high street.

" I don't know if it's because of e-cards or because there's now more competition in the neighbourhood from other shops that sell cards. I mean you can buy them in supermarkets now,"said assistant store manager Glafcos Anastassiou.

The Design Centre said it was too early to give a reasoned assessment of how trade was going.

" It's too early to say because Cypriots buy right up until the last minute, "said Andreas Lambellas.

The Solonion Book Shop had another excuse for the slight downturn in their year's card trade.

" We've sold less than in other years because people prefer to send charity cards, which you can't buy in bookshops. We don't sell them,"said proprietor Takis Solonos.

Offering another insight, he said that corporate shoppers preferred to send cards plastered with scenes of Cyprus abroad, whereas private senders snapped up more traditional Christmas scenes.

The Ministry of Finance sent electronic Christmas greetings, congratulating themselves in Parliament this week for saving paper and helping the environment.

Disability product suppliers G C Paraquip has been sending e-Christmas cards for the last four years. The company chose the e-mail option because most of its business is conducted over the Internet.

" Yes, some people come into our shop, but generally most of our business in done over the Internet,"said George Manakos.

But for the majority of government, semi-governmental, charity and private companies in Cyprus, that day has not yet arrived.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[12] Dope found

Police said the tape recorder arrived at Larnaca airport from Athens late in November.

Inside the stereo, customs found 6.7 kilos of cannabis distributed in 11 cylindrical containers.

Police in co-operation with the parcel company took the recorder to its offices in Limassol and waited for it to be picked up.

But no one looked for the box until Wednesday when a 22-year-old woman called the company and asked them to deliver it to a different address from the one written.

The parcel with the stereo was delivered and 10 minutes later a 23-year-old man entered the flat and picked it up.

On his way out the man was intercepted by officers who arrested him along with the 22-year-old woman.

Police said the pair were questioned and named a 28-year-old man as the final recipient of the package.

A 35-year-old was also arrested but was later released.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[13] Leaked report shows hard drug use on the rise

The report, which was leaked to Phileleftheros , said there was an increase in demand for hard drugs from a large number of Cypriot users who have now shifted from cannabis towards harder stuff like heroin and cocaine.

The report said substantial quantities of drugs were thought to be trafficked by known criminal elements, also suspected of involvement in other serious criminal activity.

The report, which was drafted by the Drug Squad in November, shows that there has been an increase in users over the past 10 years, while this year saw an unprecedented increase in drugs-related cases.

Police have this year investigated 356 cases involving 460 people, compared to 292 cases involving 377 people last year.

Confiscations of locally grown cannabis plants have dwindled, indicating a turn towards drug imports from neighbouring countries, the report said.

The Drug Squad said the situation concerning students and soldiers using drugs remained under control, with only a few incidents recorded outside camps and schools.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[14] EAC pensioner 'tampered with meters for a fee'

Michalis Masouras from Nicosia was remanded in custody for four days on suspicion of conspiracy to commit felony and theft of electricity.

Police investigator Soteris Andreou told the court that EAC officials had accused the 71-year-old pensioner of illegally tampered with the electricity meters on the property of a man in Ayia Napa and changed the indications so that he paid lower electric bills.

Masouras was arrested on Wednesday and in his car police found numerous tools allegedly used to 'fix' the meters.

They also found a notebook with entries concerning at least 65 businesses and homes across the island where Masouras had allegedly offered his services.

The court heard that the pensioner had allegedly admitted to interfering with electricity meters around Cyprus for a fee.

From the entries in his notebook, it transpired that the EAC has lost thousands of pounds, the court hard.

In the Ayia Napa case, Masouras allegedly collected over £2,000 for his services, police said.

Masouras was caught after EAC workers who started suspecting something was wrong decided to keep the Ayia Napa property under observation.

One day, they allegedly saw Masouras entering the building and remaining there quite a while.

After he left, the workers checked the meters and found that the security seals had been broken, leading to his arrest.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[15] Deputies through out stabilisation fund proposal

The proposal was submitted to Parliament a year ago seeking to set up a special fund that could intervene on the stock market to restore stability.

All parties but DISY and ADIK voted against the plan, arguing such intervention would act against the interests of the free market.

Finance Committee chairman Marcos Kyprianou of DIKO point out the state could even cause further harm to the stock exchange if given the authority to sell as well as buy shares in massive quantities.

" The government would succumb to popular pressures and make the wrong moves,"he said.

Kyprianou and other opposition deputies charged that the government had already registered a company to serve as a stabilisation fund, despite vocal parliamentary opposition to the proposal.

Prodromos Prodromou of DISY responded that, " you cannot prevent the state from drawing up policies. And in the case of the stock exchange the free market did not work."

Christos Clerides of New Horizons said the whole situation was absurd:

" Left-wing AKEL defends the free market while right-wing DISY pushes for state interventionism."

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

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