PEOPLE are trying to use their cars less as fuel prices have risen by about 13 cents a litre in about a month, the head of the petrol station owners’ association Stephanos Stephanou said yesterday.
Stefanou said with consumption tax, VAT and international prices going up, consumers should expect more increases.
But he said that 13 cents a little in a month was a “very harsh increase”.
“We haven’t seen prices like this in a very long time,” Stephanou said.
He added that some petrol stations report up to 20 per cent decrease in sales, he added.
“It’s very normal for all of us to be saving up,” he said referring to wage cuts across the state and private sector and tax hikes.
One petrol station owner in a busy street in Nicosia said that some people now put in the minimum. “Some people come in asking for two euros’ worth of fuel. I ask them what they’ll do with two euros and they say they just need to get home,” he said.
Petrol stations can set whatever prices they want, and though they often cite an increase in international fuel prices when prices go up, the auditor general has said prices can be higher than expected. And the commerce ministry has said petrol stations are slower to drop prices than they are to raise them.