PARLIAMENT yesterday voted down a government bill that would have doubled the consumption tax on rolled tobacco to bring it in line with the tax on manufactured cigarettes.
The bill was rushed through parliament as a matter of urgency, and while initial deliberations indicated it would garner enough votes, a number of deputies had a change of heart just before voting got underway at the plenum yesterday.
According to the Finance Ministry’s calculations, the tax hike would have generated an extra €20 million to state coffers annually.
Thirty MPs belonging to the DISY, DIKO, EDEK and EVROKO parties voted against, while 15 deputies belonging to ruling AKEL abstained.
During debate at the plenum, opponents of the bill banded together against the AKEL government, criticising the timing of the hike which would have coincided with yesterday’s increase on VAT on goods and services from 15 to 17 per cent.
The defeated bill would also have made it mandatory for the maximum retail price to be clearly marked on cigarette packs; selling cigarettes at a higher price would be a criminal offence.
Seizing the opportunity to slam the administration’s “failed” economic policy, which as he said has inevitably led to an onslaught of taxes, DISY no.2 Averof Neophytou suggested that the way to correct the discrepancy in taxes between manufactured and rolled tobacco was not to increase the latter, but rather the other way round.
Neophytou said the problem could be traced to the government’s misguided bid to increase consumption tax on manufactured cigarettes a year ago.
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