The above figures “do not include other grants paid by the EU directly to public corporations”, including the Cyprus Agricultural Payments Organisation (Capo), a body tasked with paying subsidies to farmers, Stelios Anastasiou, an accountant at the Treasury said in an emailed statement.
Since May 2004, Capo has received a total of €803m, Anastasiou said.
In the same period, the government transferred to the EU €1.6bn in its own resources based on gross national income (GNI) and €519.6m in the form of the EU’s share in value added tax (VAT) revenue, the Treasury said. In addition, the government transferred to the EU budget €405.3m in “traditional own resources”, which include custom duties and sugar levies.
The GNI is a country’s gross domestic claimed by its residents plus wages earned by foreign residents minus wages earned by non-residents at home. The share of the EU’s VAT revenue is 0.3% on the harmonised VAT tax base of every country.
In the first ten months of 2016, the island transferred to the EU a total of €163.3m and received €60.3m back in the form of grants to the government, resulting in net transfers of €103m the Treasury said. In 2016, net transfers were €122.8m after grants fell to €37.5m, the lowest since 2007, against a total of €160.3m in total transfers.
The highest amount of transfers to the EU was in 2008 when the government contributed €310.2m in transfers to the EU followed by 2015 with €236.1m. In 2008, total transfers exceeded grants by €252.7m, the highest difference ever after that of 2015 when it was €143.7m, according to the Treasury.
In 2004, 2005 and 2006, the Cypriot government received €6.7m, €16.6m and €7.3m more than it paid to the EU budget, the Treasury data show.
Source: Cyprus Mail