Wednesday, 2 March, 2022.
There have been more reactions by people representing business sectors in North Cyprus to the latest price hikes in electricity.
They have warned that increased electricity costs will halt production, bankrupt companies and increase the cost of living even further.
Supermarket Operators Platform President and Spokesperson, Devpa Supermarket Director Tanser Nizam said that the new electricity prices, will halt production and prices will increase, Yeniduzen reported.
Nizam said, “Electricity prices will increase threefold, we will pay electricity prices equivalent to the salaries of personnel.
“Production sectors, industry, commerce will perish and go bankrupt. There is no salvation for this”, he warned.
“I am 70 years old, I have never seen anything like it. I can’t sleep at night,” said Nizam, “It will be such a nightmare that we won’t be able to buy anything. All sectors will go into a deadlock”, he said.
Nizam added that there would be a rash of bankruptcies in the business world.
In a separate article Yeniduzen reports that President of the Cyprus Turkish Building Contractors Association Cafer Gürcafer, said, “It is not possible to have tourism or production with such an increase“. He described the new pricing in electricity as “the final stroke for bankruptcy”.
“We arrived here because of the wrong policies“, he said, and emphasised that serious scientific studies on energy policies should be carried out and a project should be produced on how to provide cheap energy.
“What needs to be done in the short, medium and long term should be determined. The opposition and the government should embrace and implement these projects“, he said.
Gürcafer said that there is a need for a Supreme Council for Energy in the country and that Kıb-Tek should be given an autonomous structure and purged from politics.
In yet another article published by Yeniduzen, President of the Chamber of Commerce Turgay Deniz, said that the new price hikes were unaffordable and would be reflected in cost of living increases.
Deniz pointed out that the increase in energy prices is unaffordable.
“Everyone from households to workplaces, tourism, industry and agriculture will be adversely affected“, he said.
Deniz also stated that the electricity price hike should be reduced to reasonable levels and gradually reorganised in the future.
He was also critical of the fact that the opinions of the sector representatives were not taken into account before such a change was made to electricity prices.
“This increase cannot be met“, Deniz said.
