Urban and rural taxi drivers will stage a four-hour work stoppage islandwide on Wednesday, December 10 seeking a reduction in road tax and also concession fuel.
The strike will take place from 6.30am to 10.30am with the divers gathering at central locations. In the case of Larnaca and Paphos the protest will take place outside the airports, and they have not excluded the possibility of blocking roads if their demands are not met.
The drivers are supported by AKEL MP Andreas Fakontis who said the government had “revealed its true face” when it had spoken about protecting vulnerable groups.
“Taxi driver is profession that is slowly dying,” he said. “After the introduction and operation of the public transport system, and the economic crisis this sector is facing a serious problem of survival.”
AKEL has suggested that in addition to reducing various taxes on drivers to make the service more competitive, Fuel expenses accounted for 40-50 per cent of the cost of operating a taxi, it said.
On behalf of taxi drivers Dinos Constantinou said that problems had been accumulating in the sector for years and no matter how many times they asked for these problems to be discussed or how many times they talked with the government, no solutions were ever offered.
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