Price increase for gas cylinders ‘justified’

The recent 20 per cent price hike for gas cylinders is not a result of profiteering but of significantly increased butane and propane prices, the energy ministry said on Monday.

“If we consider these significant increases, they affect the final product and are therefore justified,” the ministry’s consumer protection service director Constantinos Karagiorgis told the Cyprus Mail.

According to Karagiorgis, the average price for gas cylinders stood at €17.71 in January, €18.25 in February and €23 in March.

“The increase is tremendous,” he said.

Karagiorgis said that as Cypriot distributors have to import they are bound to the prices of international sellers, meaning they cannot be very flexible in terms of pricing.

This, combined with the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, has led to the increase of almost 20 per cent for household gas cylinders.

“The content of gas cylinders consists of 80 per cent butane and 20 per cent propane and these prices saw a sharp increase,” he said.

While the propane price has increased by 52 per cent, the price for butane has almost doubled, having increased by 87 per cent, Karagiorgis said.

“The price increase [of gas cylinders in Cyprus] is justified,” he added, dismissing allegations that they were a result of profiteering by sellers.

As of Monday, the price per gas cylinder at Petrolina gas stations stood at €23.11.

“We don’t determine prices on our own, it’s the headquarters and they themselves are tied to supplier prices,” a Petrolina gas station worker told the Cyprus Mail.