NICOSIA (Reuters) -Cyprus wants to postpone or limit new carbon taxes this year to avert a double hit to consumers from tariffs on water and fuel, President Nikos Christodoulides told television station Omega TV in an interview.
The new levies on water and fuel bills are expected as part of a so-called Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) championed by the European Union to speed a green transition in the bloc.
“This thing some people are saying about a green tax storm – it’s not happening,” Christodoulides said in the remarks aired on Wednesday, adding that Nicosia was in talks with the EU on the matter.
“We are ready to lose money from this fund in order to avoid imposing increases on the public.”
Cyprus’s RRF, approved in 2021, has a total budget of 1.2 billion euros ($1.34 billion).
($1=0.8932 euros)
(Writing by Michele Kambas; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
