Electricity prices may rise another 18 per cent

ELECTRICITY prices are expected to rise by a further 18 per cent in the new year, Finance Minister Serdar Denktaş warned this week — while hitting out at rumours that the four-way coalition government was on the verge of collapse.

Mr Denktaş said the Kıb-Tek electricity authority needed a further 18 per cent increase in prices and he was “currently discussing that with them.

”We will definitely find a formula on the issue and we will not have an extra increase until 2019.”

Mr Denktaş also disclosed that a “technical committee” had been formed in Ankara, charged with monitoring economic and other developments in the TRNC, adding: “The necessary contacts with it will be made in the coming days.”

Commenting on the national economy, he said the “problem that began in the US” had been “imported into the TRNC”, with soaring foreign currency exchange rates causing a financial “fire” throughout the country and a loss of 250 million TL to state finances since the beginning of the year.

However he said the government would resolve the problems and was continuing to make payments to pensioners, civil servants and farmers.

Addressing rumours that the government was about to fall, and that his Democrat Party and the main opposition National Unity Party would form a new one, Mr Denktaş said breaking up the coalition at such a difficult time would be “tantamount to high treason”.

“We will not be anyone’s pawn in such a thing.”