CYPRUS: Police on the lookout for road tax offenders

Cyprus police are on the lookout for motorists who have not paid their road tax as the deadline for renewing it has passed.

With the grace period given to motorists to pay their road tax, due at the end of December, expiring on Monday night, 92% of vehicles (638,000) have has their road tax paid before the cut-off point from a total of 695,000.

Road Transport Department boss Sotiris Kolettas said that 95% of taxes were paid online, with the total state revenues from the process amounting to EUR 76.8 mln, just shy of last year’s 77 mln.

Kolettas said that while the same percentage of tax due as last year has been collected, the decrease is due to a larger number of vehicles which have been taken off the road.

He added that as of Tuesday the Police and the Road Transport Department will be reporting those motorists who are driving without a valid road tax. Offenders will be issued a EUR 10 fine and a 10% penalty on road tax owed.