DAYLIGHT ROBBERY
● MINISTERS AND KIB-TEK ACCUSED OF INTRODUCING ‘STEALTH’ RISE IN ELECTRICITY RATES ● CONSUMERS RECEIVE NASTY SHOCK AS UNEXPECTED ‘FUEL EXPENSES’ ADDED TO BILLS ● GROUP WARNS OF LEGAL ACTION AND ‘SOCIAL HAVOC’ IF SURCHARGE IS NOT RESCINDED ● FINANCE MINISTER ASKS CABINET TO APPROVE ‘REMOVAL’ OF THE FUEL SURCHARGE
THE Cyprus Turkish Electricity Authority (Kıb-Tek) has been accused of committing “daylight robbery” after adding a “fuel exchange fee” to bills for April.
The extra charge on the bills, issued on May 1, just a day before the three-day Bayram holiday, sparked outrage among the public.
Many took to social media to blast the fee of 60 kuruş per kilowatt hour (kWh) of energy used, plus 10 per cent KDV (VAT), which in some cases added hundreds of TL to bills and come in addition to the new higher electricity tariffs introduced in March.
While a “fuel expenses” line was included in the bills for March that were issued on April 1, the charge on those bills was listed as “zero kuruş” per kWh.
The street lighting charge has also gone up in the latest bills, from 10.95TL to 31.52TL.
Consumers who had spent thousands of euros on installing solar energy systems to reduce their monthly bills were also in for a shock, as they too were levied with the extra fuel charge, even in cases where they had produced more electricity for the grid than they had consumed.
Latif Akça, an aide to President Ersin Tatar, wrote: “While we call on our people to switch to solar energy and give incentives and call on the state to support this work, Kıb-Tek takes money from those who install solar energy by stealing under the name of a fuel exchange fee fraud.”
Ahmet Cemal Kiracıoğlu, a former TRNC Central Bank official, said that a “new form of theft” had been introduced by Kıb-Tek “without using the words ‘price hike’”.
Sabahattin İsmail, a former adviser to the late TRNC founding President Rauf Denktaş, described the move as “post-modern theft”.
“If Kıb-Tek and the government had spent half of the time they spent on finding a postmodern method of theft, [called] a ‘fuel exchange fee’, to reduce Kıb-Tek personnel expenses, production costs, and to end bribery, theft, privileges, and union hegemony, then neither [Kıb-Tek] would go bankrupt, nor would the people react like this.
“It is theft to apply a ‘fuel exchange fee’ even to people who install solar [energy] systems and generate electricity from the sun and give it to [Kıb-Tek] for free . . . If this is not theft, then what is it?”
Mr İsmail said that electricity should be brought from Turkey via an under-water cable, and that the TRNC should switch to solar and wind power production.
Currently the TRNC has two power stations that burn imported fuel oil, purchased in US dollars, to generate electricity.
The rising cost of such fuel globally and the government’s struggle to find the money to pay for it have been among the reasons for the increasing costs of energy in North Cyprus.
Yusuf Avcıoğlu, a former KıbTek board member, said that the fuel exchange fee had come about
after ministers approved the dense text of various regulations relating to electricity on February 17 this year.
Mr Avcıoğlu said that the formulae relating to fuel costs contained within the regulations had provided Kıb-Tek with the opportunity to “camouflage” and increase the cost of electricity without raising tariffs any further.
He added that the fuel surcharge had also created a “double standard” among those with solar energy systems.
Urging people to sue Kıb-Tek, Mr Avcıoğlu said: “The legal route is clearly open and must be sought.”
The North Cyprus Fast-Moving Consumer Products Suppliers Association (Tutder) said that the latest increase in the cost of electricity could lead to “havoc” and legal action.
Tutder chairman Engin Yeşilada said that the fuel fee on electricity bills has “no economic rationale” and that it was introduced “without considering how it will cause havoc and tension among society”.
Stating that the latest hikes in electricity prices will “negatively affect every economic field from industry to the service sector” Mr Yeşilada said: “Dear administrators, politicians: the end of this road is not bright. . . With this mindset, we are walking towards the darkness, not the light.”
CHARGE TO BE ‘REMOVED’
Yesterday Finance Minister Olgun Amcaoğlu, speaking during a BRT TV interview, said that the fuel surcharge will be “removed” from electricity bills.
Stating that the Kıb-Tek board of directors have made the “necessary changes to abolish” the “fuel exchange fee, which was reflected in the April bills”, Mr Amcaoğlu said that a regulation will be submitted to the Council of Ministers and will come into force after its approval.
Mr Amcaoğlu stated that “work on electricity tariffs” is “continuing” and that he is working “towards the continuation of a discount similar to the March bills in the April bills”.