During the session, it was heard by officials that Cyprus has the most expensive electricity in Europe if not in the world, which is a cause for concern.
The Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA) and MPs called on the Government and the Cyprus Electricity Authority (EAC) to end the Authority's profitability policy and to use the money to repair the damage caused by the explosion in Marie.
RAEK Vice President Konstantinos Iliopoulos said that the EAC should reduce profitability and proceed with self-control, adding that the EAC in the midst of financial crisis can not insist on profitability in 2010 where it had profits of 100 million euros.
The Chairman of the Committee, Lefteris Christoforou, noted that 30% of the electricity bills consist of taxes and fees, noting that with this unacceptable tactic, the EAC will soon have no business customers, since they will go bankrupt.
EAC spokesman Costas Gavriilidis said that the amount of the Authority's prices is primarily a result of the dependence of electricity generation in Cyprus on oil and its derivatives, which are imposed on electricity bills.
As the EAC, he noted, we do not want to comment on the fees imposed on the bills, such as the fee for renewable energy sources, for utilities or the fee for the Cyprus Petroleum Inventory Management Organization and VAT.
This, he said, is an issue for the State that has introduced these fees and it is the Government that reaps the money that is collected.
As for electricity generation from oil and its derivatives, he said that this is a timeless result of the mistakes of the State.
"Every effort of the EAC to get rid of oil stopped at the decisions of the Parliament or the respective Governments", he noted.
We as an Organization on our part, continued Mr. Gavriilidis, are making every effort to reduce our operating costs and much has been done in this direction.
"The EAC does not insist on the profitability it would have had if the destruction of Vasilikos had not taken place. It has to be a for-profit organization but it is not a for-profit organization. We must have a reasonable surplus in order to be able to maintain the viability of the Organization ", he added.
DIKO MP Nikolas Papadopoulos, who registered the issue, said that "unfortunately once again today on the part of the EAC we heard an autopsy of what is wrong and we did not hear solutions for what should be done."
We had as Cyprus, he noted, the most expensive electricity in Europe before Marie and after Marie things are definitely worse and as we were told today we may have the most expensive electricity in the world.
"After Marie, the dilemma we have is whether the EAC will go bankrupt or all the others will go bankrupt. "The problem is that when the Cypriot companies go bankrupt due to the cost of electricity, they will drag the EAC with them because they are its customers", he added.
The EAC together with the Government, he continued, should find ways to reduce the price of electricity.
He said that the high cost of electricity causes a problem in the competitiveness of the Cypriot economy in general. It causes problems in our exports, in tourism, in the domestic market and additional burdens on Cypriot consumers.
Mr. Papadopoulos finally called on the Minister of Commerce, Neoklis Silikiotis, to implement the legislation on the ceiling and to reduce the prices of electricity.
AKEL MP Costas Costa suggested that the EAC should limit its profitability.
EDEK MP Nikos Nikolaidis called on the Government to take immediate measures to reduce prices.
The MP of the Movement of Environmentalists, George Perdikis, described it as unthinkable for the EAC to record profits, at a time when it has the most expensive electricity in Europe.
For his part, the General Secretary of POVEK, Stefanos Koursaris, demanded the suspension of the power outage in companies that fail and the promotion of facilities for the repayment of electricity.