On Tuesday, the Plenary Session will decide on the issue of taxation on municipal waste disposal, as well as the establishment of offenses and the imposition of penalties.

“The debate has been going on for three weeks. We had the opportunity to examine the issue in principle. Most of the parties involved were invited. During the last session, we held a clause-by-clause discussion of the regulations as well.”
_{^{Linos Papagiannis – ELAM MP / Chair of the Environment Committee}}

Members of Parliament will be called upon to decide, among other things, whether a tax of €10 per metric ton will be imposed until December 31, 2027, on municipal waste sent to landfills for disposal, while from January 1, 2028, and thereafter, this tax will increase annually by €5 per metric ton of municipal waste, until it gradually reaches a maximum of €70 per metric ton.

“ELAM’s position is that it will not support the bill for a number of reasons. The most important is that we have once again allowed an issue to reach a point that is by no means acceptable. If we believed that this could at least improve the situation, then we would vote for it.”
_{^{Linos Papagiannis – ELAM Member of Parliament/Chair of the Environment Committee}}

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Linos Papagiannis emphasized that the committee’s sessions revealed the existence of all kinds of waste that are difficult to manage, and the issue will be discussed in detail by the committee starting in September.

Funds will be lost

The issue now is that lawmakers are being asked to choose between voting in favor of an additional tax on citizens or rejecting the bill—which would result in the loss of 23 millionfrom the Recovery and Resilience Facility, since the introduction of a landfill tax on municipal fees has been a commitment made by Nicosia to Brussels since 2021.

“We understand that this commitment was made by the government to secure funding from the European Union, but the ‘Pay-As-You-Throw’ system should have been implemented first so that citizens would have both a financial and environmental incentive to reduce their waste.”
_{^{Andreas Konstantinou – DISY MP / Member of the Environment Committee}}

From the Democratic Alarm Party’s perspective, what we were told is that the most likely scenario is that the bill will not be supported.

“The government has done nothing, nothing, nothing. They’ll take 23 million from the Recovery and Resilience Plan, but that money won’t be deposited into a fund to address the issue of waste disposal; instead, it will be deposited into the general fund, and at the same time, over the next four years, citizens will pay this 32 million euro tax.”
_{^{Nikos Kettiros – AKEL Member of Parliament/Member of the Environment Committee}}

The other parties are examining the issue based on the amendments that will be presented to the House.

Watch the report by Kleio Vourkou: