Gov’t to relax car duties

The efforts of the island’s disgruntled car dealers to reduce the prohibitive excise duty on new car imports may have paid off as the government seems to be giving the whole issue a serious re-think, the

reported on April 23, 1997. The biggest concern is the haphazard import of used cars from Japan’s ‘domestic’ market with no

Financial Mirror

road worthiness inspection, doubtful invoices and lack of parts and support. Ever since the new GATT/WTO free trade agreements, customs officials may impose the excise duty of 80-130%.

Two of the leading cash-strapped football clubs are turning to privatisation in order to secure future funds. Nicosia side Apoel is to issue CYP 750,000 worth of stock to 1,000 shareholders to cover its annual budget of CYP 900,000, while Limassol’s Apollon is also considering a similar move.

Football clubs:

CTC dividend:

Cyprus Trading Corp. (CTC) saw its turnover pass the CYP 60 mln mark for the first time in 1996 with Chairman Nicos Shacolas proposing a 7% dividend or 7c a share, after no dividends in 1995 and a bonus share issue in 1996.

In France, met with Francois Leotard of the Union for French Democracy (UDF), while former PM Edouard Balladur said the choice in the election campaign was “between the past and the future.”

Prime Minister Alain Juppe