Increase in Road Tax for Cyprus Rotary Owners
 

Hi, there all sorry for not speaking or writing in Greek, I am an Welshman living in Cyprus, who received today a letter from the Road Transport Department regarding increasing the cost of Road Tax by 10 times from 56.00 euros a year to 514.00 euros per year due to the reclassification of Cubic Capacity they want to change it from 1308cc to 2616cc.

I am looking to see if anyone is organising a protest to the government, if so please let me know. I dont want to have to pay the 514.00 euros, if we can get something sorted.

Regards,

Falconer

This will be also posted for any lurkers in the main forum and the UK Owners Club to try and get maximum exposure.

Cyprus RIDICULOUS Road Tax for RX8
 

Hello rx8 owners of Cyprus,

I am making this post in order to draw the attention Cypriot rx8 owners regarding the new road tax the Cypriot Road Transport Department decided to increase the cost of the tax by 10 times from 56.00 euros a year to 514.00 euros per year.:wallbash::cussing:

ANYONE WHO IS WILLING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT OR HE/SHE IS DOING SOMETHING PLEASE POST AND LET US KNOW SO WE CAN ALL JOIN IN.

Thank you

Hi mate, i am cypriot and i am furious with that new legislation ..I am trying to contact the president of the cyprus rx8 club and organize a massive protest about this subject which is completely unreal and fake.Our car is 1308 cc..Even my mama knows that..They cant do whatever they want ..I also have 3 friends with 8's and they are willing to participate in whatever we are going to come up with ...On monday we will talk with Stefanides company which is the official representative of MAZDA in cyprus and see if they are doing something about that ...If you want pm your phone so that if i have anything i can keep you posted...And btw if you have any friends that own 8's as well bring them closer ...My name is George .

Hi George,

I have posted the same thread to the UK owners club forum and Rotary Heaven forum and Mazda Rotary Club (UK) as well to try and get maximum exposure. In Stephanides you might want to speak with Andreas Eliades he seems to be the Head Technician there, I dont know if you know of anyone else higher up.

I have tried to contact the one person I know here with an '8' he's on the UK forum. I will pm you my number as well.

Regards,

Adrian Falconer

Hi Marios,i live in Cyprus as well and i am willing to do a lot of things about that issue...Send a pm with your phone if you want so i can keep you posted...I already found 6 rx8 cypriot owners and i will try to contact the cyprus rx8 club president ..We will call Stefanides on monday morning and see if they are going to do something about that as well ..I am george btw and i live in Nicosia..Where do you live ?

Merged the 2 threads

All Cypriot owners count me in, in whatever you do. I have had the 8 for almost 4 years now and there is no way I'm gonna put with this!

The thing is the letter send to us has a date of 21/12/2009 and most of us got it 31/12/2009 due of the holidays. And it is valid from 1/1/2010. How convenient they took us out of surprise.

Just got the letter as well. Monday I will be contacting "sindesmo katanaloton" to see what they have to say about this and will keep you posted. There is no way the RTD can increase our road tax by 1000% and get away with it. This is prejudice against RX8 owners and is based on a lie, the car is officially all over the world 1308cc! were the hell do they get off saying that suddenly its 2616cc???????????? Idiots!!!

PS HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone even though its gonna be expensive for us in Cyprus!

@CyprusRX8

keep us updated on any progress

Here in the Rep. of Ireland the motor tax system has changed from being based on cubic capacity to being based on C02 emmisions.
Using the old system (pre 1st July '08) the RX-8 was classed as having a 1701cc engine:( , and any car registered in Ireland before 1st July '08 still pays tax on that system. For the RX8 this equates to a yearly car tax of €551.
After 1st July '08, the RX-8 is now classed as having 226g/km of CO2 or more, which now equates to a yearly car tax of €2,100, an increase of €1549.:mad::mad::mad:

All I can say is the best of luck with your efforts to have the rates changed by your government.

see here for Irish rates,
https://www.motortax.ie/OMT/pdf/co2_...es_2009_en.pdf

If they wanted to change it they should at least keep the old system for cars registered before the 1/1/2010 like they did in Ireland and not impose it on current owners. This would be more fair I think.

just so everybody knows

:puke:click regarding renewals

Right I have just received word that Stephanides is on our side and that we need to get a petition together, for the owners of Cyprus. Here is the PM recieved.

Well Adrian, i had a meeting tonight with rx8 club's president and a journalist from burn out magazine.

This is the story : the legal side of the issue will be handled by louis(president) who will arrange and talk with a lawyer.

Also tomorrow they will contact stefanides to learn their part of the story regarding this issue and also mr kolettas who is the head of road and tax dept.

What we owners have to do now is give our signature to a piece of paper in order to supply our lawyer with that.

Each city in cyprus will collet their own signatures and then send them to louis..You can contact the person in this number xx xxx xxx and meet him to sign.

He is responsible for larnaka territory..I dont know his name though because i got the number from louis but he is aware and informed so you should be fine.ok?dont hesitate to contact me for any questions.

First, my apologies as I registered only now to the forum (I was under the impression that I did it 3 years ago... I guess I'm getting old ).

I too had some discussions with few people over the phone and I was asked to give my name, registration number, model and colour of the car.

There are two things going on :
1) As falconer mentioned this will go to court
2) There are plans for a group protest the coming Saturday 9th or the one after 16th

I will keep you update


PS. whoever wants contact number to give his/her details for all the above, let me know.

PS2. I will NEVER accept to give my car's title to be changed and I will NEVER pay any additional money for the road tax...period !

stupid road tax
 

i am in,me and another 30 friends with rotary!

Organizing the answer/respond to Cyprus Road Tax authorities
 

To All RX-8 Cyprus owners.

I am in Nicosia, with 3 universities degrees in Internal Combustion (so I can teach to the whole Cyprus government what is Rotary or any other engine for that matter), and last time with a conflict against Cyta (via Competition Committee), if I recall correctly the outcome was EUR36 million penalty.

To get organize and fight this unpresented Cyprus Road Tax move we need:
1) Organize our RX-8 group (I am in the process to i) Get 1 mobile phone number specifically for RX-8 most likely it will be 99.988887 ii) Register all RX-8 Cyprus owners iii) set up a communication method via internet for quick information among us and iv) have an initial kick off meeting in one of the cities to elect the RX-8 representatives)
2) Have legal advice on our actions
3) Discuss the subject with Stephanides Ltd as the Mazda representative
4) Have a meeting with Mr. Kolletas (the representative of Road Tax authorities)
5) Organize all cities so that there is one team in every city
6) If they are negative, then we can agree on an action plan of how to proceed (this means start your engines and get ready as the Cyprus roads or the Presidential Palace or the Ministry of Communication etc may need to find other roads to drive!).

If any other groups are getting formed or already have been formed, lets try to organize.

For all rx8 owners that live in nicosia territory you can contact me at : 99-513383 george,for larnaka territoty :96381327 and for limassol and pafos :99618796 giorgos..This is for us to collect as much signatures possible ang give tthem to louis to be passed on to the lawyer..Have in mind that it's better to procced united as one entity ...Thanx George

RX-8 Cyprus Road tax issue
 

Lets try to have one unified team regarding RX-8 Cyprus owners. You can see on top the 4 contact persons.........as i was not aware of the contacts. Now that we have it posted, we can all register via them.

IF WE ARE UNIFIED NOBODY CAN BEAT US.........SO PLEASE LETS BE CO-OPERATIVE and centralize things.

Hi,
I have a RX8 and am furious with the new proposed road tax! I live in Paphos and will join you in any way I can. My name is Costa and can be contacted on 99339777 or email on cxdnavara71@hotmail.com.
Thanks.

WHAT A DISGRACE ON BEHALF OF THIS NEWSPAPER ...

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/8008/image1mgf.jpg

George,

Can you give me a brief overview of whats being said. You also might want to resize it because the article is massive

Thanks

Adrian

Hi Adrian,
in short the article is passing to the public the side of the transportation office only, explaining that the decision was made after the office realized that they made a mistake !
It describes that is not Mazda's fault but it was a mistake from the office of transport which register RX8s are 1.3L instead of 2.6L (claiming that this is the actual engine capacity).
It also says that Mr. Koletas (the person in charge of the office) declare that they will NOT refund existing owner who don't wish to keep their cars after the change.

I want to let you know that I have already send an email to that newspaper explaining that their article is don't reflecting the actuals and they just pass some words of a person who doesn't understand a thing for engines. I said that the manufacturer (Mazda) clearly states the engine capacity as 1308cc and that the real mistake is happening now with this unjustified decision.

Guys, I have a question : the letter we all got says something about regulation 629/2008EK of the european Union. Does anybody managed to find this regulation ?
My internet search gave me some regulation for fruits and vegetables only :)
(is this the reason we have a bigger enginer capacity ? because the carrots are more brown lately ? :) )

Nicos

Thanks for the translation nicosp76

NO IT DOESN"T SAY THAT ..On the contrary !!!It says that THEY WILL NOT MAKE IT EASIER FOR EXISTING RX8 OWNERS TO SELL THEIR CARS BECAUSE OF THE NEW LEGISLATION...Please don't mislead on such an important issue ...

So we are screwed, allways then for owning this car, because not many people will want to buy one, and if we trade them for a euro box, we are going to get stung on that as well.

The worst thing ever was Cyprus going into the EU, as the government now have to follow their rules.

My apologies guys ; I omitted a very important 'NOT' from my translation. I have edited the post and added it correctly now.

Thanks Versus for the correction as also for the legislation number.
I did read the whole thing and it indeed says about considering wankel engines as double the capacity of the nominal swept volume (article 2/definition 4 of 692/2008). The major thing here is that the legislation was done with respect to the emissions and access to maintenance information, which supposed to be in effect from registration date of the car in the country and not retro-active.
(one can reffer to the post from O'renesis in this thread to see how they did it in Ireland).

The very same is actual in practice today with the emission regulation and MOT is checking based on the manufacture date of the car. e.g. a car produced in the 70s doesn't fall under any emission checks , as at the time there was no legislation (therefore the car ALWAYS passes the MOT for emissions).

Our 'beloved' government should find another way to get money from us but applying retro-actively such legislation is not only illegal , is also unethical !

I bet the department of Mr. Kolletas or anybody who voted or decided about the 629/2008/EK knows more about 'fruits and vegatables' rather than internal combustion engines!!

I am ashamed to be Cypriot when departments of the government act in such a way. They do not have the decency to i) answer phonecalls (I found couple of ladies after having presidential palace secretary on the phone) but no responsible manager answer our calls yet ii) a letter which they sent out and they had ONLY to COPY correctly the EU regulation.....they even failed to copy the damn thing (it propably meant 692/2008/EK) which still does justify their decision iii) they have destroyed the car market in Cyprus.....it is the burying ground of UK/Japan/Singapure used cars.

I THINK IS TIME THE PEOPLE WHO WERE IN CHARGE FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN CYPRUS TO RETIRE AND LET NEW PEOPLE TO TAKE OVER.

Regarding POLITIS, if I was the chief editor (or the owner of Politis) I would have dismissed the journalist that wrote the RX-8 article. Basic rule, when you do true journalism (NOT Cyprus journalism) you present the different views. Where were the 1000 RX-8 owners view?

We will inform correctly all the PROPER CYPRUS MEDIA........and if they can not stand up and write proper and true facts then we have other ways to make sure the public will know that our Cyprus transport department has failed in a big way to provide to the Cypriots proper transport.

ONE THING FOR SURE......NO WAY WE WILL PAY ANYTHING MORE THAN WHAT THE LAW SAYS.........and this is EUR56 as the RX-8 is only 1308cc.

P.S. Anybody knows how much the Turkish Cypriots pay on the occupied north?

In Greece if im not mistaken its 1.3 and 93Eur road tax.

This is all great work guys!

I truly believe to be noticed we must organise a mass blockade on the highway! Fill the highway with RX8's and bring all cars to a complete STOP on the highway.

We'll get news coverage for sure and then they will have to take us seriously.

I cannot stress enough we need a road block - something big. I've been stopping other rx8 drivers who want to join something and do something.

All those who are up for and who can contact alot of other rx8 owners who are willing to make a roadblock on the highway, leave a comment here.

Hell we should even set a date and that should be this Saturday the 9th of Jan, since on the 11th all tax disc data will be issued and released. The 11th is the earliest you can get your new road tax.

Anyone else that agrees for Sat 9 Jan at 12noon leave a comment plz!

Count me in

With you that's already about 15 of us. Who else please post!!

let me know, where this will be leaving from as I will be travelling from Larnaca

I kind of dissagree with the blockage of the highway (or any other public road).

Imagine all those non-rotary people out there, trying to reach their work, friends etc only to be blocked by us ... I'm pretty sure at the end of the day they will be pretty happy that we might get additional charges etc...

instead of a blockage, I find it more fruitful to drive towards the ministry, presidential residence or any other place that makes sense. I see that goverment is our issue and not the rest of the citizens and it makes sense to ensure that even the non-rotaries out there are on our side.

Said the above, I'm in for any kind of protest as long as it will not turn against us in the eyes of the rest of people.

Nice, can u pm ur cell number 4 comminucation plz

Ok, you make a great point! Perhaps the highway isn't the correct choice and maybe the ministry or presidential residence is. Lets all agree on something and take it from there! I'm all ears and are open to suggestions by all means...

I recommend to follow George's message : contact the above mentioned people and make sure that we ALL do what the RX club will decide; is much better to take some actions as a whole, than having small groups going here & there....

I was already informed that there some kind of protest being discussed ; we should have further updates in the next couple of days.

I totally agree with nicosp76 as to follow the rest of the rx8 club and call the person who is signing up people from each city so we can work as a whole

Nicos, thanks for the link.

I have been told the meeting place for Larnaca, is at the Neo Gazizi Stadium at 3pm

for Anyone who wants to know, Im in a Standard Black 8

I'm from Limassol, but I'm planning to visit Larnaka tomorrow and see how the gathering is going (since there is nothing for Limassol yet).

Is good to meet each other anyway :)

Unfair
 

You are totally right this desicion is so unfair....
Mr Kolettas woke up one day and just said how can the gov of Cy can collect more money from taxation?
Let's just say that they are 2.6 and not 1.3....
And the newspaper article just says that he doesn't care for anyone about the fact that we will not be able to sell our cars if the registration fee is 518 euro....

Because if I can sell my car today 10000-12000 euro if they finally do this my car's worth will be just 6000.... If there is anyone to byu it...

And the other thing.
IT IS A LUXURY CAR?
HELL NO IT IS JUST A SPORTS CAR, A ROADSTER JUST FOR FUN...
A MERCEDES IS A LUXURY CAR....


So screw mr Kolettas...

We have to admit that this is legislation coming from the EU; but being such a cypriots as always we take something which we don't understand and we badly implement it.
The legislation talks about emissions and our goverment decided to a) increase the engine capacity of the car and b) make it applicable to already registered cars.

Is something like the speed bumps we have all over the place; we saw that european countries have them and we build some mountains every 1 Klm ...who cares about specifications and locations; just put them to feel that we are doing something.


Guys,
I noticed that we are having different price tags for the road tax !

let's check something: I have a 2003 model , registered in Apr 2007 and I'm currenlty paying 61 euros. The 'imaginary' amount they want to get from me is 565 euros
what's your details ?

Meeting place for what and when ??For signatures or something else ?I hope its for the first..Guys dont be hasty and start spreading into small groups that act radically with no certain plan or goal ...What nicos said is absolutely right,we cant have the rest of the society against us and we have to act as a whole and with a modest way for now..But yeah if all else fails we will be more massive and fierce in our protests but not for now since we have to get a more clear image of whats really going on ...Dont do anything spontaneously ..Contact the numbers give your signatures and we will take them to the lawyer to have a more clear view of things...

Yes Nico,we have different tax prices and thats because of the cars registration year...Emmissions charges changed a bit every year so you will notice that 2003 owners that registered their car in 2003 pay less where later year registration owners pay a bit regardless what year make your car is...

I also have an updated phone number for Pafos residents:99 - 540961 Marios. And dont forget to join RX8 CLUB CYPRUS on facebook.You can also share comments and thoughts there while also getting briefed ...

wow im really sorry hope you guys stick together a defeat this bs legislation

George,

We are meeting at the stadium to provide the signatures, it's easier for the person who is collecting the signatures to go to one place and meet with all the people required so not to inconvenience them to much. We agree with you that the splinter movements were a bad idea so we are waiting to see what the outcome is.

Nico,

There are differing rates by the sounds of it, my 8 was first registered in 2005 and is a 2005 model. My tax has been 56 euros the last two years and they want to change mine to 514

Yeah you are right thats why we are organizing a meeting to collect signatures today at 15:30 o clock at the parkin lot of Makario Stadium.So all Nicosia RX8 owners who havent yet signed please be there.The more the better ..Thank you..

Does anyone have the link for either the facebook page or website for the Cyprus club? I can't seem to find it